Molecularly Engineered Azobenzene Derivatives for High Energy Density Solid-State Solar Thermal Fuels
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Grossman_Molecularly engineered.pdf
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Author(s)
Cho, Eugene Nammyoung
Zhitomirsky, David
Han, Grace
Liu, Y.
Grossman, Jeffrey C.
Date Issued
March 2017
Journal
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Citation
Cho, Eugene N. et al. “Molecularly Engineered Azobenzene Derivatives for High Energy Density Solid-State Solar Thermal Fuels.” ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 9, 10 (March 2017): 8679–8687 © 2017 American Chemical Society
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Solar thermal fuels (STFs) harvest and store solar energy in a closed cycle system through conformational change of molecules and can release the energy in the form of heat on demand. With the aim of developing tunable and optimized STFs for solid-state applications, we designed three azobenzene derivatives functionalized with bulky aromatic groups (phenyl, biphenyl, and tert-butyl phenyl groups). In contrast to pristine azobenzene, which crystallizes and makes nonuniform films, the bulky azobenzene derivatives formed uniform amorphous films that can be charged and discharged with light and heat for many cycles. Thermal stability of the films, a critical metric for thermally triggerable STFs, was greatly increased by the bulky functionalization (up to 180 °C), and we were able to achieve record high energy density of 135 J/g for solid-state STFs, over a 30% improvement compared to previous solid-state reports. Furthermore, the chargeability in the solid state was improved, up to 80% charged from 40% charged in previous solid-state reports. Our results point toward molecular engineering as an effective method to increase energy storage in STFs, improve chargeability, and improve the thermal stability of the thin film. Keywords: molecular engineering; molecular thin films; photoswitching; solar thermal fuels heat storage; solid-state applications; structural design
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1021/ACSAMI.6B15018
