Multifunctional Hydrogels for Sustainable Energy and Environment

Abstract: Hydrogels are highly crosslinked networks of polymers saturated with water. Conventional hydrogels have found significant applications in biomedical fields such as tissue engineering and drug delivery, owing to their stimuli responsiveness and biocompatibility. We have recently developed a novel class of ‘energy hydrogels’ based on versatile gelation chemistries with highly tunable molecular building blocks and rational integration with micro-/nano-structured materials, to achieve a number of appealing new functionalities that enable them as an emerging material platform for advanced energy and environmental technologies.

These nano-architected hydrogels as organic building blocks offer an array of advantageous features such as nanostructured conducting framework, exceptional electrochemical activity to store and transport ions, and synthetically tunable polymer-water interactions. Recent advances on these nanostructured hydrogels-enabled energy and environmental applications will be showcased including high-energy lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors, electrocatalysts, and solar-driven water desalination and atmospheric water harvesting. In this talk, I will illustrate how to design ‘structure-derived multifunctionality’ of this special class of materials and to transform the current development of hydrogel materials into sustainable energy and water technologies.

Keywords: Hydrogel, energy storage, electrocatalysis, water purification, water harvesting.

Full Article: https://www.proceedings.iaamonline.or...
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