Advanced Graphene-Based Nanocomposites through Guided Interfacial Assembly

石墨烯是一种单原子厚度的导电碳片。在给定的表面积上，它是所有材料中重量最轻的电子导体，可以相对廉价和大量地从天然石墨中生产--加拿大是北美唯一重要的资源，也是全球第五大供应源。这导致了它在许多应用中的潜在用途，如改进能量存储、能量产生，甚至作为一种先进的膜材料用于分离。不幸的是，涉及石墨烯材料的商业技术很少出现，这在很大程度上是因为将这些2D薄片加工成具有可预测结构和功能的有用的3D材料是困难的。 为了应对这一挑战，该研究计划旨在开发新的工具和工艺，以创建一个基于石墨烯的材料平台，其结构可以在纳米级进行操纵和微调。这将通过开发能够在各种衬底上沉积大面积单层石墨烯薄膜的涂层工艺来实现。这些方法将利用这样一个事实，即基于石墨烯的薄片可以漂浮在水面上，受到与水蜘蛛在水面上行走相同的力的支撑。通过这种涂覆方法的发展，原子薄片(大面积)将被逐层建立起来，以产生完全致密的多层薄膜。为了在每一层之间引入有用的空间，我们将开发一种涂层方法，用大小可调的分子尺度柱子来装饰石墨烯，这将定义层层复合材料中片层之间的有效孔洞开口。根据设计的孔径大小，这些材料可以表现出各种性能，从用于先进包装的完全阻隔层(即零孔率)，到用于净水的更节能的膜，最后是用于先进超级电容器、电池或电催化剂的离子和活性材料涂层的能力。 该研究计划还旨在通过学徒、指导和暴露在令人兴奋但严格的研究环境中来培养和激励高素质的人员。在整个研究计划中提出的具体活动将为许多最终应用领域奠定基础，这些领域将转化为加拿大公司的新产品或全新的企业。石墨烯在锂离子电池、超级电容器和用于分离的大面积膜等大容量应用中的使用，预计将刺激加拿大的石墨经济，带来新的就业机会和出口。

Graphene is a one atom thick sheet of conductive carbon. For a given surface area, it is the lightest weight electronic conductor of any material and can be produced relatively inexpensively, and in large volume, from natural graphite – a resource for which Canada holds the only significant source in North America and the 5th largest supply globally. This leads to its potential use in a multitude of applications for improved energy storage, energy generation or even as an advanced membrane material for separations. Unfortunately, very few commercial technologies involving graphene-based materials have emerged, in large part due to the difficulty in processing these 2D sheets into useful, 3D materials with predicable structure and thus function. To address this challenge, this research program aims to develop new tools and processes to create a platform of graphene-based materials whose structure can be manipulated and fine-tuned at the nanoscale. This will be achieved by developing coating processes capable of depositing large-area monolayer graphene films onto a variety of substrates. These approaches will take advantage of the fact that graphene-based sheets can float on water supported by the same forces that allow a water spider to walk on water. Through the development of this coating approach, atomically thin sheets (of a large area) will be built up layer-by-layer to create fully dense multi-layer films. In order to introduce useful space between each layer, we will develop coating approaches to decorate graphene with molecular scale pillars of tunable size which will define the effective pore opening between sheets in the layer-by-layer composites. Depending on the engineered pore-size, these materials could exhibit properties ranging from completely blocking layers (i.e., zero porosity) for advanced packaging, to more energy efficient membranes for water purification, and finally with the ability to accommodate ions and active material coatings for advanced supercapacitors, batteries or electrocatalysts. This research program is also designed to foster and inspire highly qualified personnel through a combination of apprenticeship, mentorship and exposure to an exciting but rigorous research environment. Specific activities proposed throughout this research program will build a foundation for many eventual application areas which will translate to new products for Canadian companies or to completely new ventures. The use of graphene in high volume applications such as in Li-ion batteries, supercapacitors and large area membranes for separations are expected to stimulate Canada’s graphite economy leading to new jobs and exports.