Our recent work mainly covers the synthesis and structural design of functional materials and their use for optoelectronic and energy applications, such as lithium battery, supercapacitor, photovoltaic cell, LED, electrochromic, memory device, and fuel cells (membrane or catalysis).
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Lithium ion batteries (LIBs)
Traditional graphene anodes in LIBs suffer from significant performance loss due to the restacking of graphene layers. Therefore, we have attempted a multi-step bottom-up organic synthesis of a series of 2D and 3D nanographenes with various functional groups attached to the edge of the graphene basil planes. Among other potential application, these high-surface area nanographenes have an excellent cyclic durability over hundreds charge-discharge cycles and a much enhanced charge capacity as novel anode materials for LIBs. Moreover, optimized electronic structure and facilitated electron transfer have led to energy storage three times the capacity of graphite , suggesting that the optimal design of conjugated nanographenes are promising for next generation LIBs with superior energy storage efficiency.
Electrochromic materials
We have reported systemic studies of arylamine containing electrochromic materials with red-green-blue (RGB), cyan-magenta-yellow (CMY), even black coloring (color palette) in the visible and NIR region, ranging from 300 nm to 1600 nm. Excellent operation stability has also been demonstrated over thousands coloring/bleaching switches, implying great potential for practical application in smart window and displays.