Adamson Lab @ UConn

Polymerize it: foam with hBN-lined cells. At 1 wt%, the composite self-extinguishes, no drip, no reignition -- UL-94 V-0. Every prior hBN flame retardant study we found required chemical modification. This doesn't -- pristine hBN, in situ.

Hexagonal Boron Nitride as a Two-Dimensional Surfactant: Low-Density Flame-Resistant Composites Based on Boron Nitride Exfoliated by an Interface Trapping Technique Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is a two-dimensional material isoelectric to graphene. It has a hexagonal structure with alternating boron and nitrogen atoms and is electrically insulating, thermally…

hBN is graphene's electrically insulating cousin. Like graphene, we found that it exfoliates at an oil-water interface and stabilizes high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs). What do you get if you polymerize the oil phase around it?

doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c16149

Graphic for International Women's Day from the Adamson Lab at UConn. A Venus symbol (♀) is constructed from hexagonal lattice cells — the honeycomb structure of graphene. The circle is filled with purple and magenta hexagons; 15 golden hexagons glow among them, representing the 15 women who have been graduate members of the lab. A solid gradient stem and crossbar extend below in purple to gold. Faint ghost hexagons radiate outward into the dark background. Below, text reads: "Happy International Women's Day - Every bond in this lattice is load-bearing. So are the 15 women who carry it. From your friends at the Adamson Lab." The Adamson Lab logo appears at the bottom.

In 1911, over a million women marched for the right to work and vote. 115 years later, 15 women have carried this lab's research forward - today, 4 of our 8 members are women. Every bond in this lattice is load-bearing. So are they. Happy International Women's Day 💜🔬

Pour the emulsion through water-wet glass beads. Graphene adsorbs; graphite washes out with heptane. Add acetone and the graphene releases. Raman 2D peak confirms 1-2 layers. Pristine sheets, no surfactants, no centrifuge.

Chromatographic Approach to Isolate Exfoliated Graphene A chromatographic approach for separating exfoliated graphene from natural flake graphite is presented. Graphene is an extremely strong, electrically and thermally conductive two-dimensional…

Getting graphene out of a graphite emulsion is the hard part. We remembered back to our original paper: graphene spontaneously climbs wet glass vial walls. That became the separation strategy.

doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c00917

Not quite, but we did brew tea for science! Green tea and Darjeeling both work - the catechins and the aflavins do the same π-π stacking as tannic acid. Check out Section 2.3: "Sphere formation Utilizing brewed tea." 🫖

Tannic acid pi-pi stacks onto graphene, flipping the emulsion from water-in-oil to oil-in-water. Oil droplets polymerize into conductive graphene-coated spheres, 0.2-1.4 mS each, pristine graphene, tunable size.

Polyphenol modification of graphene-stabilized emulsions to form electrically conductive polymer spheres Polyphenols, specifically tannic acid, should increase the hydrophilicity of graphene when added during the interfacial exfoliation through π-π stacki…

Graphene is hydrophobic, so shaking it with oil and water makes a water-in-oil emulsion. Polymerize the oil phase and you get a conductive foam. That's the normal outcome of our graphene exfoliation method. Add tannic acid and the emulsion inverts completely.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Synthesis of graphene oxide: Effect of sonication during oxidation The oxidation of graphite to graphene oxide (GO) is a widely used approach to exfoliate graphite. Nevertheless, achieving precise control over the deg…

Prior work sonicated after intercalation in graphene oxide synthesis - no conclusion. We sonicated during intercalation: ultrasound slows oxidation. 30% stronger composites, 2.6× better electrochemical sensing.

Liyanage et al. (UConn), Carbon 2024
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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