Title: From Clusters to Crystals: A Bottom-up Design of Energy Materials
Speaker: Prof. Purusottam Jena, Physics Department, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284-2000, USA
Venue: Room 014, SBS Building, IIT Bhubaneswar, Argul, Jatni
Date: 2016-Oct-03 10:00:00
Abstract: Clean, abundant, and sustainable energy is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges in
the 21 st century. Fossil fuels that account for more than 80% of the current world’s need are not
only limited but also are harmful to the environment. While solar, wind, and hydrogen together
can meet the world’s energy needs, considerable material challenges remain before they can
replace our dependence on fossil fuels. I will outline some of the material challenges in energy
storage and conversion with particular emphasis on hydrogen storage [1], Li-ion batteries [2-4],
and perovskite solar cells [5]. A common feature of all these materials is that they are complex
salts whose negative ion components can be identified as superhalogen clusters that mimic the
chemistry of halogens. This realization has made it possible to use the vast advances in cluster
science to design novel materials for energy applications. I will discuss how superhalogens can
help us synthesize halogen-free electrolytes for Li, Na, and Mg-ion batteries [2-4], enable
focused discovery of durable hybrid perovskite solar cells [5], understand the intermediate
phases [6] during de-hydrogenation of complex metal borohydrides, and design safer materials
capable of storing large amounts of hydrogen [7]. These results based on density functional
theory have predictive capability. Examples of experimental verification of some of the predicted
results will be presented.
1. P. Jena: “Materials for Hydrogen Storage: Past, Present, and Futureâ€, J. Phys. Chem. Letters
2, 206 (2011).
2. S. Giri, S. Behera, and P. Jena: “Superhalogens as Building Blocks of Halogen-free
Electrolytes in Li-ion Batteriesâ€, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53, 13916 (2014);
3. Zhao, J. Zhou, and P. Jena, “Stability of B 12 (CN) 12 2- : Implications for Lithium and Magnesium Ion
Batteriesâ€, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (VIP) 55, 3704 (2016)
4. P. Jena, Superhalogens: A Bridge between Complex Metal Hydrides and Li-ion Batteries.
J. Phys. Chem. Letters 6, 1119 (2015).
5. H. Fang and P. Jena, “Super-ion Inspired Colorful Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cellsâ€, J. Mat.
Chem. A 4, 4728 (2016)
6. Y. Liu, S. Giri, J. Zhou, and P. Jena: “Intermediate phases during decomposition of metal
borohydrides, M(BH 4 ) n (M=Na, Mg, Y)â€, J. Phys. Chem. C 118, 28456 (2014)
7. D. A. Knight, R., Zidan, R. Lascola, R. Mohtadi, C. Ling, P. K. Sivasubramaniam, J. A.
Kaduk, S. -J. , Hwang, D. Samanta, and P. Jena.: “Stabilization of Hydrogen Rich, Yet
Highly Pyrophoric Al(BH 4 ) 3 via the Synthesis of the Hypersalt K[Al(BH 4 ) 4 ]â€, J. Phys.
Chem. C 117, 19905 (2013)
