Electrochemical Lithium Intercalation & Exfoliation for Mass Production of 2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenides and their Application for Water Purification

Professor Tang, Chuyang   (Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) (for projects led by other university))

Zeng Zhiyuan   (Project coordinator)

36

2024-05-01

390000

Electrochemical Lithium Intercalation & Exfoliation for Mass Production of 2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenides and their Application for Water Purification

""1) Li intercalation & exfoliation"", ""2) Transition metal dichalcogenides"", ""3) Nanolaminate membranes"", ""4) Water purification"", ""5) Heavy metal removal""

Materials Sciences

C1003-23Y

Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) - Group Research Project 2023/2024

2024

On-going

i.   Developing in-situ/ex-situ multimodal characterizations to investigate phase transition in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs, including MoS2, WS2, TiS2, TaS2) during electrochemical lithium intercalation, and elucidating the intrinsic origins of phase transition in TMDs upon lithium intercalation.ii.  Performing ex-situ multimodal characterizations on a series of exfoliated TMDs nanosheets with different lithium intercalation amounts to probe the phase, electrical conductivity, chemical state, morphology, etc. Then comparing these physical properties with only lithium intercalated TMDs to uncover how exfoliation process affects the quality of the TMDs, thus optimizing the exfoliation parameters for high yield production of 2D TMDs.iii. Synthesizing large amount of 2D TMDs nanosheets (MoS2, WS2, TiS2, TaS2) via assembling soft pack batteries by coating TMDs electrode slurry on Cu foil via a roll-to-roll process and punching the electrode films into a big size for batch electrochemical lithium intercalation in TMDs.iv.                          Fabricating TMDs nanolaminate membrane via vacuum filtration method, the interlayer spacing, surface chemistry (hydrophilic or hydrophobic), swelling behavior, interlayer stiffness, chlorine tolerance, and stability will be finely tuned by grafting different kind of functional groups on 2D TMDs nanosheets. Comprehensive characterization techniques will be used to evaluate the membranes’ physical properties.v. Optimizing the membrane parameters including channel width, surface chemistry, stability and membrane thickness to get best permeability & selectivity (FO/RO): achieving Na+ rejection ≥ 97%, dye rejection ≥ 99%, water flux ≥ 5 L m-2 h-1 bar-1, regeneration performance (treat with sodium hypochlorite to mitigate biofouling) comparable with commercial polyamide membranes.vi. Investigating the adsorption effect of TMDs nanosheets & membranes toward Pb2+ in a mixed solution containing various cations (Mg2+, K+, Ca2+, Ni2+, Cd2+, Zn2+, Cu2+, and Pb2+) which will be used to unveil the selectivity and adsorption mechanisms of TMDs. Fabricating TMDs membranes-based point-of-use (POU) devices with satisfactory lead (Pb2+) removal performance for practical application.