(135c) Electricity from Asymmetric Chemical Doping of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

There is a pressing need to find
alternatives to conventional energy generation techniques, specifically those
that power micro- and nanoelectronic systems with
upper bounds on device sizes. The concept of electricity
generation based on asymmetric chemical doping (ACD) of single-walled carbon
nanotubes is presented.

Specifically, ACD enables unique
power sources driven entirely by a chemical potential gradient of the
electrical carriers within the nanomaterial, established through a spatially
asymmetric interaction with the surrounding chemical environment. Short circuit
electrical current (11.9 μA mg⁻¹)
and open circuit potential, in excess of 1.0 V, can be
reversibly produced by localized acetonitrile (CH₃CN) doping under
ambient conditions. An inverse length-scaling of the maximum power as L^−1.03
that creates specific powers as large as 30.0 kW kg⁻¹
highlights ACD’s potential for microscale energy generation.

In this talk, I will introduce the
electron transfer mechanism that describes the electricity generation process
in ACD, as well as our efforts to evolve from organic-based molecular dopants
towards a system powered entirely through interactions with water molecules.
Apart from being used as a power source for environment-interfacing
microelectronic systems, which I will discuss on the basis of
a Colloidal State Machine invented recently, ACD also finds interesting
applications in electrochemistry. In particular, it
allows us to construct a particulate platform that generates “packets” of
electricity on demand, in solution, and drives electrochemical transformations
in situ by virtue of interacting with the solvent.

References:

(1)  Liu, A. T.;* Kunai, Y.;* Liu,
P.; Kaplan, A.; Cottrill, A. L.; Smith-Dell, J. S.; Strano, M. S. Adv. Mater. 2016, 28, 9752.

(2)  Liu, A. T.;* Mahajan, S. G.;* Cottrill,
A. L.; Kunai, Y.; Bender, D.; Castillo, J.; Gibbs, S. L.; Strano, M. S. Energy & Environmental Science 2016, 9, 1290

(3)  Liu, A. T.;* Kunai, Y.;* Cottrill,
A. L.; Koman, V. B.; Liu, P.; Kozawa, D.; Gong, X.; Strano, M. S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 15328.