Descripción del proyecto
Un catalizador líquido para una síntesis y separación perfectas de materiales bidimensionales
Imagine derretir una vela y dejar que las gotas caigan en un trozo de papel de lija estampado para que se enfríen, en vez de dejarlas caer en un tazón de agua. Claramente, será mucho más fácil recuperarlas casi intactas o sin daños en la superficie del agua que en la superficie de la lija áspera. Esta es una forma de describir lo que ocurre actualmente con los materiales bidimensionales de alta tecnología que se adsorben desde su fase gaseosa a los catalizadores sólidos. La síntesis y posterior transferencia de estos materiales da lugar a numerosos defectos, contaminación y estrés mecánico, lo que compromete sus tan codiciadas propiedades. El proyecto DirectSepa, financiado con fondos europeos, introduce catalizadores metálicos líquidos como sustitutos de los sólidos en estos procesos. La tecnología promete una velocidad y calidad de producción sin precedentes y podría marcar el comienzo de una nueva era de innovación para los materiales bidimensionales.
Objetivo
Two-dimensional materials (2DMs) such as graphene, germanene, h-BN, transition metal dichalcogenides and others are currently amongst the most intensively studied classes of materials that hold great promise for future applications in many technological areas. However, the main hurdle against practical utilization of 2DMs is the lack of effective mass production and transfer techniques of high-quality 2DMs to satisfy the growing demands for scientific and technological applications. The current state-of-the-art synthesis method of 2DMs involves the adsorption of gas-phase precursors on a solid catalyst. This process is slow by nature, inefficient, and environmentally unfriendly. The produced 2DMs are often defective, contaminated, and suffering from very high residual stress, compromising their unique physio-chemical properties for the expected applications. During our ongoing FET-Open project of LMCat, we have studied a radically new synthesis method for growing 2DMs which employed a liquid metal catalyst (LMCat) instead of a solid one. Our recent experimental and theoretical evidence suggests that using LMCats bears the prospect of 2DMs with unprecedented quality and production speed. The major success of this project has motivated us to follow up on this via this industrially oriented proposal with the aim of demonstrating the possibility of continuous graphene production via performing its simultaneous growth and its direct separation from the LMCat. This is to increase the technology readiness level from TRL2 in the current FET-Open project of LMCat to TRL4 at the end of the proposed FET-Proact project of DirectSepa. To tackle the unprecedented challenge of direct separation, a multidisciplinary scientific and technological consortium with ample experience in this due to its past involvement with the FET-Open LMCat project, was put together. Success of the DirectSepa project has the potential to revolutionize the 2DM production market.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-EIC-FETPROACT-2019
Régimen de financiación
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinador
2311 EZ Leiden
Países Bajos