Sustainable Processes for the Preparation of Electrically Conductive Hierarchical Carbon Materials

DIPC Seminars

Speaker

Francisco del Monte, ICMM-CSIC, Madrid, Spain

When

2012/11/09
12:30

Place

Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC).Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal, 4 (nearby the Facultad de Quimica), Donostia

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** ** **Sustainable Processes for the Preparation of Electrically Conductive Hierarchical Carbon Materials** **** Francisco del Monte ***** ** ** The use of structure directing agents (SDAs) in the synthesis of porous materials is a common practice in materials chemistry. Lately, the interest is focused on the use of more sustainable approaches upon the use of “green” solvents and SDAs. Within this context, those approaches based on a certain economy of reagents are considered even more interesting. For instance, synthesis carried out in solvents capable to, at a certain stage, play the role of a SDA and template the structure of the resulting material. Within this context, we have developed an ice segregation induced self-assembly (ISISA) process based on unidirectional freezing and subsequent freeze-drying that is suitable for the preparation of materials exhibiting well-defined microchannelled structures.1 More recently, we have also explored a second synthetic route that is based on the use of deep eutectic solvents (DESs). DESs belong to the family of ionic liquids (ILs) and share most of their characteristic properties (e.g. nonreactive with water, nonvolatile and biodegradable) and interestingly, offer certain advantages (e.g. high purity and low cost, among the most significant). DESs are obtained by complexion of quaternary ammonium salts with hydrogen-bond donors. In this synthetic approach, DESs can act as a regular solvent, as a solvent which shows a more or less controlled structure directing effect or even as a molecular precursor with a well-defined composition, structure, and reactivity. When all these features are combined in a single synthesis, the term next generation “all-in-one” solvent–template–reactant DES-assisted synthesis can be applied.2 In this seminar, we will demonstrate the utility of these approaches for the synthesis of macroporous and hierarchical carbon materials. The excellent electrical conductivity of these materials has allowed their successful application as electrodes in fuel cells3 and supercapacitors,4 and even as biomaterials after mineralization of the macroporous structure.5 **Bibliography** 1\. María C. Gutiérrez, María L. Ferrer, and Francisco del Monte, “Ice- Templated Materials: Sophisticated Structures Exhibiting Enhanced Functionalities Obtained after Unidirectional Freezing and Ice-Segregation- Induced Self-Assembly.” _Chem. Mater._ **2008** , _20_ , 634–648 2\. Daniel Carriazo, María Concepción Serrano, María Concepción Gutiérrez, María Luisa Ferrer and Francisco del Monte, “Deep-eutectic solvents playing multiple roles in the synthesis of polymers and related materials.” _Chem. Soc. Rev.,_ **2012** , _41_ , 4996–5014 3\. Krishna Katuri, M. Luisa Ferrer, María C. Gutiérrez, Ricardo Jiménez, Francisco del Monte and Donal Leech, “Three-dimensional microchanelled electrodes in flow- through configuration for bioanode formation and current generation.” _Energy Environ. Sci.,_ **2011** , _4_ , 4201 4\. María C. Gutiérrez, Daniel Carriazo, Aitana Tamayo, Ricardo Jiménez, Fernando Picó, José M. Rojo, M. Luisa Ferrer, and Francisco del Monte, “Deep-Eutectic-Solvent-Assisted Synthesis of Hierarchical Carbon Electrodes Exhibiting Capacitance Retention at High Current Densities.” _Chem. Eur. J._ **2011** , _17_ , 10533 – 10537 5\. Stefania Nardecchia, M. Concepción Serrano, María C. Gutiérrez, M. Teresa Portolés, M. Luisa Ferrer and Francisco del Monte, “Osteoconductive Performance of Carbon Nanotube Scaffolds Homogeneously Mineralized by Flow-Through Electrodeposition.” _Adv. Funct. Mater._ **2012** , DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201200684 ***Francisco del Monte** is a Tenured Scientist at the Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM-CSIC), Spain. He received an organic chemistry BSc degree from the University Autonoma of Madrid (UAM) in 1991, a MSc degree in polymer science from CSIC in 1992, and a PhD in chemistry also from the UAM in 1996. He then spent two years as a post-doc at UCLA working on hybrid sol- gel materials. He has co-authored over 80 scientific papers. At the beginning of his career, his scientific interest was related to the preparation of hybrid materials for optical applications. Since 2004, he leads the group of Bioinspired Materials at the ICMM-CSIC. His current scientific interest is the use of biomimetic chemistry for the preparation of hierarchically organized materials.