Green Solution-Processing of Functional All-carbon Nanocomposites

石墨纳米结构，如富勒烯、碳纳米管和石墨烯基薄片，长期以来一直是科学家和工程师的魅力，因为它们具有优异的性能，可以导致更小、更强、更智能和更清洁的材料和技术。虽然在这些石墨纳米材料中已经发现了大量的材料特性，但在其广泛的工业应用之前需要克服的一个主要障碍是其较差的可加工性和在溶剂中聚集的倾向。使其更易于溶解的策略通常涉及使用难以清洁的表面活性剂，苛刻和有毒的溶剂，以及对其表面进行广泛的化学改性，这通常会增加复杂性，潜在的负面环境影响和材料制造成本。该项目旨在开发绿色，水基加工技术和相关的石墨纳米材料的材料组装科学，灵感来自于我们最近发现的氧化石墨烯作为片状表面活性剂。基于这些点状、管状和片状碳纳米结构之间的相互作用，由两种或所有这些材料制成的自稳定复合材料的水分散体应该是可行的。因此，一个突然不同的想法是在水中处理这些石墨纳米碳材料，而不需要任何额外的表面活性剂或分散剂。绿色制造和清洁能源的新材料和新技术对我们社会的利益和可持续性至关重要。如果成功，该项目将导致绿色材料加工策略，可以消除或尽量减少使用有毒，腐蚀性溶剂或广泛的材料改性，通常用于提高溶液的可加工性。它还可能带来前所未有的完全由碳制成的光伏材料，以及用于电能转换和储存的高性能碳基电极。

Graphitic nanostructures such as fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene-based sheets have long been the fascination of scientists and engineers due to their excellent properties that could lead to smaller, stronger, smarter and cleaner materials and technologies. While great material properties have been discovered in these graphitic nanomaterials in lab scale quantities, a major roadblock that needs to be lifted before their widespread industrial applications is their poor processability and tendency to aggregate in solvents. Strategies for making them more soluble typically involve the use of hard-to-clean surfactants, harsh and toxic solvents, and extensive chemical modification of their surfaces, which usually increase the complexity, potential negative environmental impact and cost of material manufacturing. This project aims to develop green, water-based processing techniques and the associated material assembly sciences of these graphitic nanomaterials inspired by on our recent discovery of graphene oxide as sheet-like surfactant. Based on the interactions between these dot-, tube- and sheet-like carbon nanostructures, self-stabilized aqueous dispersions of composites made of two or all of these materials should be feasible. Therefore, an abruptly different idea is to process these graphitic nano-carbon materials in water without the need for any extra surfactant or dispersion agent. New materials and technologies for green manufacturing and clean energy are central to the interest and sustainability of our society. If successful, this project will lead to green material processing strategy that could eliminate or minimize the use of toxic, aggressive solvents or extensive material modification typically employed to improve solution processability. It could also lead to unprecedented photovoltaic materials completely made of carbon, and high performance carbon-based electrodes for electrical energy conversion and storage.