Functional Membranes
The effective use of marine energy is conducive to the early realization of China's carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.
Seawater desalination: clean water shortage is one of major threats to mankind and becoming increasingly severe accompanied with continuous expansion of global populations and the industrialization process. Desalination or domestic sewage purification through solar steam generation (SSG) is an effective means to address this problem thanks to the ubiquitous and green solar energy.
Uranium extraction from seawater: Due to the importance of the uranium in nuclear power industry and the gradually reduce of uranium reserve in terrestrial ore, the highly efficient acquisition of uranium from non-traditional approach is urgent. The ocean, with a total amount of 4.5 billion tons, is the biggest reserve of uranium on the earth. The recovery of uranium from seawater is a potential strategy to meet the growth demands of uranium.
Salinity Gradient Energy Harvesting: Salinity difference between seawater and river water is a sustainable energy resource that catches eyes of the public and the investors in the background of energy crisis. To capture this energy, interdisciplinary efforts from chemistry, materials science, environmental science, and nanotechnology have been made to create efficient energy conversion methods and materials. Through membrane-based processes, such as reverse electrodialysis and pressure retarted osmosis, electric power can be harnessed from natural waters.
Reference:
[1] Wang, K.; Yang, H.; Liao, Z.; Li, S.; Hambsch, M.; Fu, G.; Mannsfeld, S. C. B.; Sun, Q.; Zhang T. Monolayer-Assisted Surface-Initiated Schiff-Base-Mediated Aldol Polycondensation for the Synthesis of Crystalline sp2 Carbon-Conjugated Covalent Organic Framework Thin Films, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023 145, 5203-5210
[2] Yan, X.; Lyu, S.; Xu, X.-Q.; Chen, W.; Shang, P.; Yang, Z.; Zhang, G.; Chen, W.; Wang, Y.; Chen, L. Superhydrophilic 2D Covalent Organic Frameworks as Broadband Absorbers for Efficient Solar Steam Generation, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, 61, e202201900.
[3] Yin, X.; Wu, D.; Yang, H.; Wang, J.; Huang, R.; Zheng, T.; Sun, Q.; Chen, T.; Wang, L.; Zhang, T. Seawater-Boosting Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization for Functional Polymer Brush Engineering, ACS Macro Letters 2022. 11, 693-698.
[4] Liu, C.; Hsu, P. C.; Xie, J.; Zhao J.; Wu, T.; Wang, H.; Liu, W.; Zhang, J.; Chu, S.; Cui, Y. A Half-Wave Rectified Alternating Current Electrochemical Method for Uranium Extraction from Seawater. Nat Energy 2017, 2, 17007.
Semiconductor Devices
Two-dimensional polymers (2DPs), as an emerging class of synthetic 2D materials, have introduced alternative routes towards to the fabrication of organic electronic device due to the intrinsic porosity and flexibility as well as tailored electroactivity and photoactivity. Broadly, 2DPs have been successfully implemented as conductive or semiconductive components for electronic devices, such as organic photodetector, organic transistors, and organic sensor and memory devices. Based on the synthetic methodologies towards the controlled synthesis of 2DP thin films in our group, we are particularly interested in the fabrication of appealing electronic devices, such as organic electrochemical transistor (OECT), biomimetic optical sensor and neuromorphic memory device. Consequently, we expect to establish a reliable structure-property relationship and achieve superior performance for advanced organic electronic device.
Reference:
[1] Song, J.; Liu, H.; Zhao, Z.; Guo, X.; Liu, C.; Griggs, S.; Marks, A.; Zhu, Y.; Law, H. K.; McCulloch, I.; Yan, F. 2D Metal-Organic Frameworks for Ultraflexible Electrochemical Transistors with High Transconductance and Fast Response Speeds. Sci. Adv. 2023, 9, eadd9627.
[2] Wang, C.; Zhang, Z.; Zhu, Y.; Yang, C.; Wu, J.; Hu, W. 2D Covalent Organic Frameworks: From Synthetic Strategies to Advanced Optical‐Electrical‐Magnetic Functionalities. Adv. Mater. 2022, 34, 2102290.
[3] Li, C.; Wang, Y.; Zou, Y.; Zhang, X.; Dong, H.; Hu, W. Two-Dimensional Conjugated Polymer Synthesized by Interfacial Suzuki Reaction: Towards Electronic Device Applications. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 9403-9407.[4] Zhang, T.; Qi, H.; Liao, Z.; Horev, Y. D.; Panes-Ruiz, L. A.; Petkov, P. S.; Zhang, Z.; Shivhare, R.; Zhang, P.; Liu, K.; Bezugly, V.; Liu, S.; Zheng, Z.; Mannsfeld, S.; Heine, T.; Cuniberti, G.; Haick, H.; Zschech, E.; Kaiser, U.; Dong, R.; Feng, X. Engineering Crystalline Quasi-Two-Dimensional Polyaniline Thin Film with Enhanced Electrical and Chemiresistive Sensing Performances. Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 4225.
Polymer Coatings
Biofouling and corrosion on surfaces immersed in high fouling and aggressive environments always leads to the deterioration of functionality and service life of materials in biomedicine, petrochemical infrastructures, maritime facilities, and power plants. To combat the effect of biofouling and corrosion on the materials, the development of polymer coatings with protective performances are thus a key challenge. Two-dimensional polymers (2DPs), as an emerging class of synthetic 2D materials, have shown excellent physical and chemical properties owing to the uniform porosity and tailored structure, which would render 2DPs with great potential in protecting materials from aggressive and fouling environments. We are particularly interested in fabricating 2DPs (e.g. graphdiyne, covalent organic frameworks, metal-organic frameworks, 2D polymer brushes) as protective coatings on various surfaces. Consequently, we expect to establish stable and durable coating systems and achieve outstanding anti-biofouling and anti-corrosion performances for precision devices and equipment.
Reference:
[1] Qiu, H.; Feng, K.; Gapeeva, A.; Meurisch, K.; Kaps, S.; Li, X.; Yu, L.; Mishra, Y. K.; Adelung, R.; Baum, M. Functional Polymer Materials for Modern Marine Biofouling Control. Prog. Polym. Sci. 2022, 127, 101516.
[2] Yimyai, T.; Thiramanas, R.; Phakkeeree, T.; Iamsaard, S.; Crespy, D. Adaptive Coatings with Anticorrosion and Antibiofouling Properties. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021, 2102568.
[3] Wang, Z.; Scheres, L.; Xia, H.; Zuilhof, H. Developments and Challenges in Self‐Healing Antifouling Materials. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2020, 30, 1908098.
[4] Villegas, M.; Zhang, Y.; Jarad, N. A.; Soleymani, L.; Didar, T. F. Liquid-Infused Surfaces: A Review of Theory, Design, and Applications. ACS Nano 2019, 13, 8517.