Rice chemists gain edge in next-gen energy
http://news.rice.edu/2014/11/03/rice-chemists-gain-edge-in-next-gen-energy/[font face=Serif][font size=5]Rice chemists gain edge in next-gen energy[/font]
Mike Williams November 3, 2014
[font size=4]Rice University scientists create dual-purpose film for energy storage, hydrogen catalysis [/font]
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The versatile chemical compound classified as a dichalcogenide is inert along its flat sides, but previous studies determined the materials edges are highly efficient catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), a process used in fuel cells to pull hydrogen from water.
Tour and his colleagues have found a cost-effective way to create flexible films of the material that maximize the amount of exposed edge and have potential for a variety of energy-oriented applications.
The new film was created by Tour and lead authors Yang Yang, a postdoctoral researcher; Huilong Fei, a graduate student; and their colleagues. It catalyzes the separation of hydrogen from water when exposed to a current. Its performance as a HER generator is as good as any molybdenum disulfide structure that has ever been seen, and its really easy to make, Tour said.
The films can also serve as supercapacitors, which store energy quickly as static charge and release it in a burst. Though they dont store as much energy as an electrochemical battery, they have long lifespans and are in wide use because they can deliver far more power than a battery. The Rice lab built supercapacitors with the films; in tests, they retained 90 percent of their capacity after 10,000 charge-discharge cycles and 83 percent after 20,000 cycles.
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http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201402847/abstract