Synthesis of Two- and Three-Dimensional Carbon-Based Materials and Their Applications

Abstract

Due to abundant carbon reserves (15th most element in the earth’s crust) and light weight advantage, carbon based materials have been studied to replace rare and expansive inorganic materials in energy materials. Since the discovery of graphene, two dimensional structure, in 2004, two dimensional carbon materials have attracted the attention of researchers from around the globe. Keeping in view the importance of carbon materials, we first produced edge-selective functionalized graphene (EFG) for the production of large-area uniform graphene film for transparent and flexible electrode and transistor by top-down method from graphite to graphene. The resultant graphene films show ambipolar transport properties with sheet resistances of 0.52-3.11 kΩ/sq at 63-90% optical transmittance. EFG allows solution processing methods for the scalable production of electrically conductive, optically transparent, and mechanically robust flexible graphene films for use in practice. Secondary, we designed and synthesized two dimensional benzimidazole based network polymer for counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) to replace platinum. We confirm the effect of thermal annealing and additives of iron from T-HPBI for electrocatalytic activity from the symmetrical dummy cell with two identical electrodes. Furthermore, we also designed and synthesized three-dimensional polymer through solid-state reaction without catalyst at low-temperature for solid sorbent for CO2 capture. The reaction is triggered by metastable crystal lattice energy below its crystal melting temperature. The driving force for the reaction is systematically studied with single-crystal X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry.