Materials Design of Coal to Products

Jeffrey C. Grossman

Department of Materials Science and EngineeringMassachusetts Institute of Technology

jcg@mit.edu

NCC 2020 Fall Annual Meeting | 10.23.2020

Coal as a feedstock material: Certainly not a new idea

medicines

photography

paint

insecticides

Billiard balls

linoleum

baking powder

(1930)

A souvenir made by 6th graders from Huntington, West Virginia, for then senator JF Kennedy

How can we apply modern materials design tools to unlock the rich chemistry in natural carbon as a cheap, highly adaptable feedstock?

B. Keller, N. Ferralis, J.C. Grossman. Nano Lett. 2016, 16, 5, 2951–2957

Coal

Annealing

Conductivity better than reduced graphene

4

Brent Keller

Nicola Ferralis

Comparing Coal to Tar

5

• “Steam-cracker” tar is a carbon waste product• Literally “bottom of the barrel” burned or given away

Oven annealing

Transparent heaters from Tar

O. Morris et al. Adv. Mater. 2019, 31, 1900331 6

Owen Morris

Xining Zhang

Nicola Ferralis

Laser Processing of tar

O. Morris et al. Adv. Mater. 2019, 31, 1900331 7

Local heating of the laser:

• suitable for different substrates

• compatible with lithography processes

Expanding the toolbox of hydrocarbons

Tar Pitch

(mesophase)

Coal

0.14

0.66

0.780.83

1

0.64

Initial Final 0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

Sp

2

Tar

Coal

Mesophase

1.84

1.14

0.59

0.34

0.580.52

Initial Final 0.0

0.4

0.8

1.2

1.6

2.0

H:C

Tar

Coal

Mesophase

C. Jian, X.Zang, N Ferralis, JC Grossman, Carbon, 155, 309 (2019)

X. Zang et al., Sci. Adv. 2020; 6 : eaaz5231 Xining Zhang Nicola Ferralis

Different carbon feedstocks can be combined to control properties.

0 20 40 60 80 1000.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

ID/IGID

/IG

La (A)

X. Zang et al., Sci. Adv. 2020; 6 : eaaz5231

graphene Diameter (A)

Xining Zhang Nicola Ferralis

Can control sp3 fraction, graphene flake size & stacking over a broad range

grap

hen

e St

acki

ng

Different mixtures / laser power

Silicon QuantumDots

Manufacturing complexity▪ Simple Materials

▪ Complex Fabrication

▪ Complex Materials

▪ Simple fabrication

V. Bulovic. Energ Environ Sci 8, 1200, 2015

Natural carbon (coal, pitch, tar, etc.):• Materials complexity, high heterogeneity • Massive tunability• Can tailor manufacturing to application• Ultra-cheap

coal

Coal with a laser and deeper understanding

Anthracite

Bituminous

Lignite

Molecular Representation Coal Microstructure Laser Annealed Coal

Coal maturity + laser + additives lead to massive control over:• Electronic

properties• Magnetic

properties• Structural

properties

X. Zang et al. Submitted (2020). 13

Printed Coal Electronics

Printed metal powder in air with coal/tar binder

Xining Zhang

Nicola Ferralis

Laser Engineered Coal (R-2-R)

Pressing

First Bath Substrate Cleaning Second Bath Functionalization

Inkjet Printing/Spraying

Ball milling

Dispersion

Solution/surfactant

Drying

Third Bath Binder Structure, porosity, conductivity and etc

Doping

Develop solution based coating, and integrate fiber laser for R-2-R manufacturing.

Layer 1

Layer 2

Large-area application example #1: functional coatings

Photo credit: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25603883

Camel fur helps to keep camels cool!

Can we do as well as a camel?

Large-area application example #1: functional coatings

Large-area application example #1: functional coatings

• The cost bottleneck is

the aerogel. Can we

make a coal-based

aerogel?

• Cheap thermal coatings

made from coal could

make this technology

scalable.

Two Ways to Separate Pasta

Membrane Thermal>80% Energy savings

Large-area application example #2: membranes

★Sugars★Small proteins★Amino acids★Molecular chemicals★Antibiotics★Dissolved salts★Acids★Bases★Dissolved oils★Dyes

US Energy Consumption (2015)

Industry

32%Transportation

28%

Commercial

18%Residential

22%

Evaporation & Distillation 40%12 quadrillion BTU

★ Desalination

Two Ways to Separate 1-10 nm Particles

Howard Perlman, USGS, NOAA Drought Monitor, 2016

accessible freshwater

available seawater Switch from

thermal to

membrane

based

MillimetersMicronsNanometers

MacrofiltrationCeramic materials

No robust option

22

Shreya Dave

Brent Keller

S. Dave, B. Keller, K.

Golmer, and JCG, Joule

2017

24

Shreya Dave

Brent Keller

24

ViaSeparations

6000x scale-up

Cost-Effective, Robust, Graphene-basedfiltrations for Industrial Applications

D. Cohen-Tanugi et al. Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, 7, 1134S. Dave, B. Keller, K. Golmer, and JCG, Joule 2017

Feedstock: Coal?

Graphene Membrane

Nanoscale Performance

50th Percentile for each technology, IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation 27

Coal

different^

…by understanding its atomic-scale chemistry and leveraging its flexibility as a feedstock for advanced manufacturing of new, functional, robust, cheap materials.

Iron

Industry Silicon

Stones

Bronze

Plastics

Atom ScaleMaterials Design

The Age We Live

28

Current Group and Support

Brendan Smith

Nicola Ferralis

Xining ZhangYanming Wang

Staff

Post-docs

Grad Students

Laura von Bosau

David Bergsman Zhengmao Lu Thomas Sannicolo

Taishan Zhu

Adam Trebach

Tian XieAsmita Jana

David Chae

Ki-Jana Carter

Emily Crabb

Xiang Zhang

Sheng Gong

Jatin Patil