WIN Seminar - Dr. Hirotomo Nishihara: "Design and development of functional porous materials"

Design of porous structures in materials chemistry has been one of the recent hot topics, involving a wide range of materials from classical amorphous and zeolitic materials to advanced metal-organic frameworks. The author has developed a variety of unique porous materials in a wide scale range, mainly aiming for the applications related to energy storage and conversion. In this talk, the author will introduce advanced porous or related functional materials which have been recently developed by the author’s group. The first material is cellulose-based macroporous honeycomb monoliths resembling natural tree xylem. The honeycomb monoliths can be prepared by the ice-templating approach, and possess straight channels with a size range of 10-100 μm. Ultra-low pressure-drop and chemical flexibility of the channel walls make the monoliths fascinating for separation and catalyst applications. The second material is mesoporous carbon with singlegraphene walls. Among so many graphene-based materials recently proposed, this new material has distinct features such as a high surface area approaching the theoretical maximum, ultra-high durability at high electrical potential, and mechanical elasticity. A great potential for applications to supercapacitors and fuel cells will be mentioned. The third material is ordered carbonaceous frameworks (OCFs) inheriting structural and chemical features of parent organic crystals. The synthesis pathway for OCFs enables the development of new electrocatalysts having the advantages of molecularbased structure control and electric conductivity as well as chemical/thermal stability. Finally, the authors will mention his recent research development of Si-based materials for lithium-ion batteries.