Dmitry Voylov

Carbon nanomaterial produced by microwave exfoliation of graphite oxide: new insights

We present detailed characterization of graphene-like material obtained through microwave stimulated exfoliation of graphite oxide (GO). Properties of this material were studied by multiple techniques including, among others, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, mass-spectroscopy, infrared and Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and broadband dielectric spectroscopy. Specific surface area and volume of microwave exfoliated graphite oxide reached 600 m2 g−1 and 6 cm3 g−1, respectively. It is shown that during such an explosive reduction process the sample emits CO2, CO and H2O and, in some cases, SO2 gases. The resulting reduced material exhibits IR spectra similar to that of graphite and a dc-conductivity of 0.12 S cm−1.

Effect of Binder Architecture on the Performance of Silicon/Graphite Composite Anodes for Lithium Ion Batteries

Although significant progress has been made in improving cycling performance of silicon-based electrodes, few studies have been performed on the architecture effect on polymer binder performance for lithium-ion batteries. A systematic study on the relationship between polymer architectures and binder performance is especially useful in designing synthetic polymer binders. Herein, a graft block copolymer with readily tunable architecture parameters is synthesized and tested as the polymer binder for the high-mass loading silicon (15 wt %)/graphite (73 wt %) composite electrode (active materials >2.5 mg/cm2). With the same chemical composition and functional group ratio, the graft block copolymer reveals improved cycling performance in both capacity retention (495 mAh/g vs 356 mAh/g at 100th cycle) and Coulombic efficiency (90.3% vs 88.1% at first cycle) than the physical mixing of glycol chitosan (GC) and lithium polyacrylate (LiPAA). Galvanostatic results also demonstrate the significant impacts of different architecture parameters of graft copolymers, including grafting density and side chain length, on their ultimate binder performance. By simply changing the side chain length of GC-g-LiPAA, the retaining delithiation capacity after 100 cycles varies from 347 mAh/g to 495 mAh/g.

Robust and Elastic Polymer Membranes with Tunable Properties for Gas Separation

Polymer membranes with the capability to process a massive volume of gas are especially attractive for practical applications of gas separation. Although much effort has been devoted to develop novel polymer membranes with increased selectivity, the overall gas-separation performance and lifetime of membrane are still negatively affected by the weak mechanical performance, low plasticization resistance and poor physical aging tolerance. Recently, elastic polymer membranes with tunable mechanical properties have been attracting significant attentions due to their tremendous potential applications. Herein, we report a series of urethane-rich PDMS-based polymer networks (U-PDMS-NW) with improved mechanical performance for gas separation. The cross-link density of U-PDMS-NWs is tailored by varying the molecular weight (Mn) of PDMS. The U-PDMS-NWs show up to 400% elongation and tunable Youngs modulus (1.3-122.2 MPa), ultimate tensile strength (1.1-14.3 MPa), and toughness (0.7-24.9 MJ/m3). All of the U-PDMS-NWs exhibit salient gas-separation performance with excellent thermal resistance and aging tolerance, high gas permeability (>100 Barrer), and tunable gas selectivity (up to α[PCO2/PN2] ≈ 41 and α[PCO2/PCH4] ≈ 16). With well-controlled mechanical properties and gas-separation performance, these U-PDMS-NW can be used as a polymer-membrane platform not only for gas separation but also for other applications such as microfluidic channels and stretchable electronic devices.

Oscillatory behaviour of the surface reduction process of multilayer graphene oxide at room temperature

We report the observation of oscillatory redox reactions on the surface of multilayer graphene oxide (GO) films at room temperature. The redox reactions exhibited dampened oscillatory behavior with a period of about 5 days and were found to be dependent on the time elapsed from film deposition. The kinetic behavior observed for the oxidation–reduction reactions and the metastability of the surface functional groups are adequately described by two models involving GO reactions and reactant diffusion.

Effect of polymer residues on the electrical properties of large-area graphene–hexagonal boron nitride planar heterostructures

Polymer residue plays an important role in the performance of 2D heterostructured materials. Herein, we study the effect of polymer residual impurities on the electrical properties of graphene-boron nitride planar heterostructures. Large-area graphene (Gr) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) monolayers were synthesized using chemical vapor deposition techniques. Atomic van-der-Waals heterostructure layers based on varied configurations of Gr and h-BN layers were assembled. The average interlayer resistance of the heterojunctions over a 1 cm2 area for several planar heterostructure configurations was assessed by impedance spectroscopy and modeled by equivalent electrical circuits. Conductive AFM measurements showed that the presence of polymer residues on the surface of the Gr and h-BN monolayers resulted in significant resistance deviations over nanoscale regions.