Established in 2009, the Graduate School of EEWS (Energy, Environment, Water, and Sustainability) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is the first of its kind, an interdisciplinary department at KAIST collectively addressing with interdisciplinary approaches for the emerging and urgent issues in energy, environment, water, and natural resources of the twenty-first century for sustainable society through science, technology, and education (http://eewseng.kaist.ac.kr). Currently housing 12 research groups with diverse backgrounds in chemistry; physics; chemical, electrical, mechanical, and environmental engineering; and materials science, the EEWS is the culmination of unprecedented collaboration under the same roof with close interaction of students and faculty from unlikely backgrounds (Figure 1). The output in a relatively short period of time is remarkable; the collaborative research combining basic and applied disciplines of seemingly different subjects have produced many novel concepts and approaches in various energy science and technology fields that are otherwise difficult to conceive in a traditional way. In an effort to critically assess the current status of the energy research, identify major challenges, and further stimulate active interactions among the disciplines to solve the challenges, we held the first EEWS forum, “EEWS 2016: Progress and Perspectives of Energy Science and Technology”, in the KI Fusion Hall of KAIST on October 20, 2016. The meeting featured eight internationally recognized energy experts from around the world introducing their cutting-edge research covering a wide range of topics in energy materials, advanced characterization tools, and catalysis, from both experimental and theoretical viewpoints (Figure 2).
Carbon Dioxide Capture Adsorbents: Chemistry and Methods
Cutting the cost of carbon capture: Of the entire carbon capture and storage (CCS) operation, CO2 capture is the most costly process, constituting nearly 70 % of the price. In this tutorial review, CO2 capture technology based on adsorbents is described and evaluated in the context of chemistry and methods, after briefly introducing the current status of CO2 emissions.
Covalent organic polymer functionalization of activated carbon surfaces through acyl chloride for environmental clean-up
P. D. Mines, D. Thirion, B. Uthuppu, Y. Hwang, M. H. Jakobsen, H. R. Andersen, C. T. Yavuz
Nanoporous networks of covalent organic polymers (COPs) are successfully grafted on the surfaces of activated carbons, through a series of surface modification techniques, including acyl chloride formation by thionyl chloride. Hybrid composites of activated carbon functionalized with COPs exhibit a core-shell formation of COP material grafted to the outer layers of activated carbon. This general method brings features of both COPs and porous carbons together for target-specific environmental remediation applications, which was corroborated with successful adsorption tests for organic dyes and metals.
Charge specific size-dependent separation of water-soluble organic molecules by fluorinated nanoporous networks
Molecular architecture in nanoscale spaces can lead to selective chemical interactions and separation of species with similar sizes and functionality. Substrate specific sorbent chemistry is well known through highly crystalline ordered structures such as zeolites, metal organic frameworks and widely available nanoporous carbons. Size and charge-dependent separation of aqueous molecular contaminants, on the contrary, have not been adequately developed. Here we report a charge-specific size-dependent separation of water-soluble molecules through an ultra-microporous polymeric network that features fluorines as the predominant surface functional groups. Treatment of similarly sized organic molecules with and without charges shows that fluorine interacts with charges favourably. Control experiments using similarly constructed frameworks with or without fluorines verify the fluorine-cation interactions. Lack of a σ-hole for fluorine atoms is suggested to be responsible for this distinct property, and future applications of this discovery, such as desalination and mixed matrix membranes, may be expected to follow.
Robust C-C bonded porous networks with chemically designed functionalities for improved CO2 capture from flue gas
Effective carbon dioxide (CO2) capture requires solid, porous sorbents with chemically and thermally stable frameworks. Herein, we report two new carbon–carbon bonded porous networks that were synthesized through metal-free Knoevenagel nitrile–aldol condensation, namely the covalent organic polymer, COP-156 and 157. COP-156, due to high specific surface area (650 m2/g) and easily interchangeable nitrile groups, was modified post-synthetically into free amine- or amidoxime-containing networks. The modified COP-156-amine showed fast and increased CO2 uptake under simulated moist flue gas conditions compared to the starting network and usual industrial CO2 solvents, reaching up to 7.8 wt % uptake at 40 °C.
Synthesis and easy functionalization of highly porous networks through exchangeable fluorines for target specific applications
D. Thirion, Y. Kwon, V. Rozyyev, J. Byun, C. T. Yavuz
Emerging porous materials like metal organic frameworks (MOFs), (1) covalent organic frameworks (COFs), (2) and porous polymers (3) offer promise in applications such as gas capture, (4) energy storage, (5) or catalysis. (6) Industrial processes that demand such materials prefer high chemical stability as well as scalable and affordable synthesis procedures. Porous polymers with robust C–C bonded networks such as porous aromatic frameworks (PAFs), (7) porous polymer networks (PPNs), (8) and conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) (3a, 3b) are chemically very stable and have been shown to reach high specific surface areas, leading to great interest in developing network (or highly cross-linked) polymers that feature permanent porosity. (9) Despite the early achievements, the use of prohibitively expensive precious metal catalysts (e.g., Pd) and the less than ideal atom economy prevented a widespread use. In addition, the lack of reactive functional groups covalently tethered on the pore walls is now a great concern, since structures without inherent chemical functionality on the pore walls are behaving similarly to activated carbons or reduced graphene oxide. In order to introduce a suitably reactive functional group, one must resort to postmodification procedures, since high reactivity on a substituent brings chemical diversion in the network building toward extending from the substituent itself. (10) This significantly prohibits chemical tunability (Scheme 1).
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