Electrochemically expanded materials and reactor and method for producing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11623867-B2
Application number	US-202117347131-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 14, 2021
Priority date	Aug 8, 2016
Publication date	Apr 11, 2023
Grant date	Apr 11, 2023

Abstract

Methods and reactors for electrochemically expanding a parent material and expanded parent materials are described. Current methods of expanding parent materials incompletely-expand parent material, requiring expensive and time-consuming separation of expanded parent material from unexpanded parent materials. This problem is addressed by the methods and reactor for electrochemically expanding a parent material described herein, which during operation maintain electrical connectivity between the parent material and an electrical power source. The resulting materials described herein have a greater proportion of expanded parent material relative to unexpanded parent material compared to those made according to others methods.

First claim

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A method of producing an expanded parent material from a parent material in contact with an electrolyte solution, comprising applying potential bias to the parent material and the electrolyte solution sufficient to produce the expanded parent material while maintaining electrical connectivity through the parent material as the expanded parent material is generated,
wherein maintaining electrical connectivity through the parent material comprises applying pressure to the parent material as the expanded parent material is generated.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the parent material and the electrolyte solution are disposed in an expandable chamber and wherein applying pressure to the parent material comprises applying pressure within the expandable chamber.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying pressure to the parent material comprises applying a constant pressure as the parent material expands.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying pressure to the parent material comprises applying a non-constant pressure as the parent material expands.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the parent material is selected from the group consisting of graphite, tungsten diselenide, molybdenum disulfide, MAX phases, transition metal dichalcogenides, bundled carbon nanotubes, and gallium selenide.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the parent material is in a form selected from the group consisting of a powder, flakes, and granules.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising agitating the parent material to disperse the parent material in the electrolyte solution.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrolyte solution is an aqueous solution and wherein the electrolyte comprises an electrolyte selected from the group consisting of sodium sulfate, potassium sulfate, ammonium sulfate, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, sodium nitrate, sodium phosphate, potassium phosphate, ammonium phosphate, sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, sodium chloride, sodium perchlorate, potassium perchlorate, ammonium perchlorate, and combinations thereof.

9. The method according to any of claim 8 , wherein the electrolyte solution has a concentration of between about 0.01 M and about 1 M.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrolyte solution comprises lithium ions and an organic solvent selected from the group consisting of dichloromethane, dichlorobenzene, diphenyl ether, dimethylformamide, dimethylsulfoxide, n-methylpyrrolidone, and combinations thereof.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrolyte solution is a hydrophilic solution, and wherein the method further comprises functionalizing the parent material with a hydrophilic moiety.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein functionalizing the parent with a hydrophilic moiety comprises heating the parent material in an acidic solution.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the hydrophilic moiety is selected from the group consisting of a hydroxyl group, a carbonyl group, an amine group, an epoxide group, an ether group, a diazonium group, and a carboxyl group.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein functionalizing the parent material with a hydrophobic moiety oxidizes a portion of the parent material to provide oxidized expanded parent material, the method further comprising reducing any oxidized expanded parent material.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the expanded parent material comprises exfoliated nanosheets.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the exfoliated nanosheets are selected from the group consisting of exfoliated nanosheets comprising graphene, graphene oxide, graphite oxide, graphene, graphyne, borophene, germanene, germanane, silicone, stanine, phosphorene, molybdenite, 2D metals, hexagonal boron nitride, transition metal di-chalcogenides, molybdenum disulfide, tungsten diselenide, and MXenes.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the parent material comprises graphite and the expanded parent material comprises graphene.

18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising separating the expanded parent material from the parent material.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising washing the expanded parent material.

20. A method of producing an expanded parent material from a parent material in contact with an electrolyte solution, comprising applying potential bias to the parent material and the electrolyte solution sufficient to produce the expanded parent material while maintaining electrical connectivity through the parent material as the expanded parent material is generated,
wherein the parent material is in a form selected from the group consisting of a powder, flakes, and granules.

21. A method of producing an expanded parent material from a parent material in contact with an electrolyte solution, comprising applying potential bias to the parent material and the electrolyte solution sufficient to produce the expanded parent material while maintaining electrical connectivity through the parent material as the expanded parent material is generated,
wherein the expanded parent material comprises exfoliated nanosheets.

Assignees

• Texas A & M Univ Sys

Inventors

• Achee Thomas C
• Green Micah J
• Sweeney Charles B
• Sun Wanmei

Classifications

• B82Y30/00

  Nanotechnology for materials or surface science, e.g. nanocomposites · CPC title

• B82Y40/00

  Manufacture or treatment of nanostructures · CPC title

• C25B9/19

  with diaphragms · CPC title

• C01B32/225

  Expansion; Exfoliation · CPC title

• C01P2004/24

  Nanoplates, i.e. plate-like particles with a thickness from 1-100 nanometer · CPC title