报告题目：Water-Activated Elastomers to Mitigate Growing Global Environmental, Healthcare and Energy Challenges

报  告  人：Richard Spontak（挪威工程院院士）

报告时间：2024年4月12日  星期五 上午10:30~12:00

报告地点： 材料科学与工程学院25号楼346会议室

欢迎广大师生踊跃参加!

 材料科学与工程学院

2024年4月9日

报告人简介：

Richard Spontak教授现为美国物理学会会士、挪威工程院院士、富布赖特高级专家、伊拉斯谟研究员和北卡州立大学杰出教授，是弹性体结构与性能及其低碳应用研究领域的著名学者、高分子组装形貌表征及TEM三维重建技术专家。他以通讯作者在Science、Advanced materials、Angew.Chem.Int.Ed、Macromolecules等国际顶级期刊发表学术论文300多篇，他引超过10000次，获得包括ACS-RUBB热塑性弹性体化学奖、ACS-PMSE Tess奖、SPSJ国际奖、北卡罗来纳州霍拉代卓越奖章、IChemE Underwood奖章、IOM3 Colwyn奖章等一些列学术奖项。

报告摘要：

Humanity today faces a variety of existential threats that range from climate change, contaminated water and food shortages to infectious diseases and dwindling energy reserves. While numerous efforts have endeavored to provide solutions to these global challenges, this presentation addresses three of them – mitigating climate change, preventing microbial transmission and providing sustainable and clean energy – from a functionalized elastomer perspective based on a common, and simple, premise: just add water. Together with colleagues from Norway, we developed hybrid integrated (HI) carbon-capture membranes by modifying the surfaces of high-flux polymer substrates through tailored surface polymerization, followed by targeted amination. Incorporation of an amine-rich polymer nanolayer on the surface of polydimethylsiloxane generates a CO2-philic nanosponge upon hydration and concentrates CO2 molecules from mixed gas streams, such as humid flue gases from power plants. The result is a revolutionary membrane design that far surpasses the empirical upper bound, which represents the tradeoff between CO2 permeability and selectivity commonly encountered with polymeric membranes intended for CO2 capture from atmospheric emissions. In collaboration with colleagues at NCSU, Kansas State University and Boston University, we discovered a game-changing polymer design paradigm for fast-acting, broad-spectrum, self-sterilizing antimicrobial surfaces. Whereas most antiBACTERIAL polymers rely on the introduction of metal (oxide) nanoparticles, proteins or positive charges on surfaces, our approach utilizes an anionic thermoplastic elastomer that pumps proteins to the polymer surface upon hydration. This mechanism yields a highly acidic water contact layer that produces a dramatic pH drop capable of killing nearly all microbes tested, including bacteria, viruses and fungi, to the minimum detection limit (typically > 99.9999%) within an exposure time of typically 5 minutes or less. Moreover, upon hydration, this anionic thermoplastic elastomer can uniquely serve as the basis for a broad range of energy-related technologies, such as dye-sensitized solar cells with a ~7% net efficiency, water-in-salt Li-ion batteries capable of retaining ~75% capacity after 1000 h and bipolar electrolyzer membranes for reaching water dissociation levels near the thermodynamic limit.