• MESOPOROUS GRAPHITIC CARBON: We fabricate large-area mesoporous hybrid carbon electrodes on polymer and metal substrates comprised of iron/iron oxide and other functional nanoparticles using catalytic photothermal processing methods. This fabrication scheme involves the simple coating of precursor film containing a phenol-formaldehyde (resol) carbon precursor, nanoparticles including iron oxide and other functional materials and a polymer surfactant or porogen. Once coated, the film is processed by exposure to sub-millisecond high-intensity light pulses from a commercial Xenon pulse flash lamp. The high light absorption of the nanoparticles results in rapid local heating, carbonization and removal of the porogens at ambient conditions. This fundamentally new approach to producing graphitic carbons has broad applications and can be easily adapted to R2R processing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Figure.  Graphitic Nanoribbon in mesoporous carbon generated using the Xenon Flash Lamp

• CRYSTALLINE SILICON CONTAINING CERAMICS: We fabricate Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Silicon Oxycarbide (SiOC) ceramic/carbon (C) nanocomposites via the photothermal pyrolysis of cross-linked polycarbosilanes and polysiloxanes using a high-intensity pulsed xenon flash lamp. These nanocomposites show crystalline and amorphous phases of SiC and SiOC ceramics, graphitic and amorphous carbon phases. These nanocomposites exhibit excellent performance as supercapacitor electrodes with capacitance as high as 27.2 mF/cm2 at a 10mV/s scan rate at room temperature, excellent stability over 1000 cycle and Coulombic efficiency of 80%.    

Figure. Crystalline Silicon-containing ceramics formed in millisecond using the Photothermal Process

• We are equipped with sheet-based and R2R coating as well as characterization facilities.  This includes large and small scale microgravures and slot die coating tools. The project team have full access to the facilities of the CHM and the Advanced Print and R2R Manufacturing Demonstration facility at UMass, a $25M state-of-the-art facility.  

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Figure. A schematic of R2R process for large-scale mass production of mesoporous carbon structures

Related publications:

• Song, D.P., Naik, A., Li, S., Ribbe, A. and Watkins, J.J., 2016. Rapid, Large-Area Synthesis of Hierarchical Nanoporous Silica Hybrid Films on Flexible Substrates. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 138(41), pp.13473-13476.
• Okoroanyanwu, U., Bhardwaj, A., Einck, V., Ribbe, A., Hu, W., Rodriguez, J. M., ... & Watkins, J. J. Rapid Preparation and Electrochemical Energy Storage Applications of Silicon Carbide and Silicon Oxycarbide Ceramic/Carbon Nanocomposites Derived Via Flash Photothermal Pyrolysis of Organosilicon Preceramic Polymers. Chemistry of Materials.
• Song, Dong-Po, Wenhao Li, Janghoon Park, Hua-Feng Fei, Aditi R. Naik, Shengkai Li, Yiliang Zhou, Yue Gai, and James J. Watkins. "Millisecond Photothermal Carbonization for In-situ Fabrication of Mesoporous Graphitic Carbon Nanocomposite Electrode Films." Carbon (2020).