学术报告 报告题目:Boron Innovation: From energy storage tonanomaterials
报告时间:2017年4月28日
报告地点:主楼二层会议室
报告人:ZhenguoHuang(Universityof Wollongong)
ABSTRACT:Boron, hydrogen, and nitrogen form many compounds together (denotedas BHN) that have high hydrogen capacity (weight percent). These compoundstypically feature extensive intra- and/or intermolecularN−Hδ+---Hδ-−Bdihydrogen interactions, which enable facile dehydrogenation.We have been developing novel synthesis methods andexploring new BHN compounds for hydrogen storage, which has been one of thebottlenecks for wide deployment of hydrogen fuel cell cars. Boron is also a keyelement of the electrolyte salt for the emerging Na-ion and Mg batteries. Itsability to form large and electrochemically stable ions enables good tuning ofthe interactions between anions and cations, and the conductivity andelectrochemical windows of the corresponding electrolytes. For example, sodium-difluoro(oxalato)borate(NaDFOB) outperforms the most widely used commercial salts for Na-ion batteriesin terms of rate capability and cycling performance.[3]This breakthroughin hydrogen storage and Na-ion batteries has been successfully commercializedin partnership with Boron Molecular, a specialist chemical manufacturer. Boronand nitrogen together form a layered compound, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), whichis isostructural to graphene. By guiding the dehydrogenation, BHN compounds canbe made to form few-atomic-layered h-BN. We have been able to grow largefew-atomic-layer h-BN nanosheets on Cu substrates. h-BN nanosheets could be anexcellent atomically thin protective layer over Cu substrate if it is made withhigh quality. Our recent findings have seen boron nitride nanosheetsdramatically improve the thermal response of temperature-sensitive hydrogels.