Researchers in Prof. Hongjie Dai's laboratory have developed nanocarbon/inorganic nanoparticle hybrid materials for various electrocatalytic and electrochemical applications, such as batteries and fuel cells. Three types of hybrid materials have been created:
Stanford researchers developed a 'self-healing' polymer coating that conforms to and stabilizes lithium metal battery electrodes. The polymer is an extremely stretchy, flexible and adaptive protective layer.
Using bamboo inspired carbon nanofibers, Stanford researchers at the Yi Cui Lab have created a freestanding, flexible and elastic electrode for energy storage devices.
Stanford researchers developed a method to increase microbial fermentation gas transfer – a limiting factor in the production of bio products such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs).
Rechargeable lithium sulfur batteries have attracted great interest in recent years because of their high theoretical specific energy, which is several times that of current lithium-ion batteries.
This invention provides a novel strategy for depolymerizing polyesters and polycarbonates with alcohols through the use of nucleophilic N-heterocyclic carbenes as catalysts.
Engineers in Prof. Butrus Khuri-Yakub's laboratory have developed a patented, simple, cost efficient, CMUT (capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers) fabrication process with incomparable precision and performance.