MSE Seminar: James Tour, Graphene synthesis and applications

T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry, Rice University

All dates for this event occur in the past.

264 MacQuigg Labs
105 W. Woodruff Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210
United States

Abstract

Described will be new routes to graphene. After a brief overview of our work in graphene for materials and medical applications, some newer approached to graphene will be discussed.  This will include laser-induced graphene (LIG) where a host of materials can be lased in the air with a standard laser cutter as found in most machine shops. This affords a conductive graphene foam from plastics, wood, paper, cotton, potatoes and food by converting the carbon in those materials into graphene. These lased patterns have been used in numerous devices including batteries, supercapacitors, triboelectric nanogenerators and sensors.  Secondly, a new bottom-up synthesis to multi-gram scales, en route to ton scales, of turbostratic graphene has been achieved using any carbon source, including coal, petroleum coke, biochar, carbon black, discarded food, rubber tires and mixed plastic waste. The conversion is done with no lasers, no solvent and in the open atmosphere, and it is complete in less than one second. Since turbostratic rather than AB-stacked (Bernal) graphene is formed, there is little order between the graphene layers, thereby facilitating its rapid exfoliation upon mixing during composite formation. This process is particularly attractive since mixed plastic waste (such as plastic bottles) can be converted into a single component graphene while discarded food waste can become fixed carbon as graphene rather than carbon dioxide and methane in landfills. This renders graphene suitable for use in bulk composites of plastics, metals, plywood, concrete and other building materials, while becoming a harbinger for largescale carbon fixation through graphene production. If this process can be scaled up, massive carbon fixation is foreseeable while providing reuse carbon for bulk construction composite materials that are enhanced by graphene. This will be further described in the context of a non-combustion program to use natural gas for energy while affording no CO2 emissions in the process.

Bio

James M. Tour, a synthetic organic chemist, received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Syracuse University, his Ph.D. in synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry from Purdue University, and postdoctoral training in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Wisconsin and Stanford University. After spending 11 years on the faculty of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of South Carolina, he joined the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University in 1999 where he is presently the T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Computer Science, and Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering. Tour’s scientific research areas include nanoelectronics, graphene electronics, silicon oxide electronics, carbon nanovectors for medical applications, green carbon research for enhanced oil recovery and environmentally friendly oil and gas extraction, graphene photovoltaics, carbon supercapacitors, lithium ion batteries, CO2 capture, water splitting to H2 and O2, water purification, carbon nanotube and graphene synthetic modifications, graphene oxide, carbon composites, hydrogen storage on nanoengineered carbon scaffolds, and synthesis of single-molecule nanomachines which includes molecular motors and nanocars. He has also developed strategies for retarding chemical terrorist attacks. For pre-college education, Tour developed the NanoKids concept for K-12 education in nanoscale science, and also Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero science packages for elementary and middle school education: SciRave (www.scirave.org) which later expanded to a Stemscopes-based SciRave. The SciRave program has risen to be the #1 most widely adopted program in Texas to complement science instruction, and it is currently used by over 450 school districts and 40,000 teachers with over 1 million student downloads. [more at jmtour.com]