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Through the 5th cycle of National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), ONE Lab won two awards:The NPRP is an annual program, with grants of up to US$350,000, per year, for projects that span from one to three years. It funds original, competitively selected research and, as the largest funding activity of QNRF, has already invested over US$345M in 411 projects to date involving 134 collaborative institutions from around the world. The fund is open to both Qatari and non-Qatari citizens, located inside or outside Qatar and accepts proposals from all disciplines.
Project: NPRP 5 - 499 - 1 - 088
Title: Cyanuric Organic Polymers (COPs) for Inexpensive and High Efficiency CO2 Capture and Separation
PIs: Prof. Mert Atilhan (Qatar University), Prof. J. Fraser Stoddart (KAIST WCU - Northwestern), Prof. Cafer T. Yavuz (KAIST)
Duration: 3 Year(s)
Project Description:
Although many industrial scale processes, such as chemisorption, physisorption, cryogenic fractionation, membrane separation, exist, CO2 capture is still dominated by alkanolamines that form carbamates through a chemisorptive scrubbing mechanism, despite their high energy cost for regeneration and corrosive nature. Cyanuric chloride is an inexpensive, reactive triazine synthon with high nitrogen content and can easily be functionalized stepwise by nucleophilic aromatic substitution and friedel-crafts acylation reactions, leading to extended framework structures in a single step if multi-valent substituents are introduced. In this project, we will synthesize porous organic polymers based on cyanuric chloride by selecting multi-dentate nucleophiles and aromatic units. By varying the organic linkers, we will tune the porosity, functionality and ordering in 2D or 3D cyanuric organic polymers (COPs), e.g. nitrogen rich linkers to enhance CO2 selectivity. Structures will be analyzed for their chemical composition, surface area, thermal and water stability, crystallinity, and selective gas sorption. CO2 capture and selectivity tests will be made at pressures up to 350 bar via a Rubotherm magnetic suspension sorption apparatus and temperatures up to 200 oC via a Rubotherm magnetic suspension thermal analyzer. We will mimic the pre and post combustion CO2 capture conditions as observed in industrial plants and obtain high accuracy gravimetric capture data.
Project: NPRP 5 - 569 - 2 - 232
Title: High Performance Lithium Ion Battery Cathodes Based on Multi-component Transition Metals and Novel Crystal Structures
PIs: Prof. Ramazan Kahraman (Qatar University), Prof. Jangwook Choi (KAIST), Prof. Cafer T. Yavuz (KAIST)
Duration: 3 Year(s)
Project Description:
The goal of this proposed work is to develop lithium ion battery (LIB) cathode materials that hold outstanding performance in energy density, power capability, cycle life, and safety. For this purpose, we propose to develop both incremental and brand-new approaches that eventually exceed the current state of the art materials, such as lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) with ~4V (with respect to Li/Li+) and a specific capacity of ~140 mAh/g. The proposed work will focus on the design, synthesis, theoretical calculation, characterization, and electrochemical testing of novel LIB cathode materials whose potential applications include portable electronics, electrical vehicles and energy storage for utility grids. These applications are critical in using renewable energy and resolving various environmental issues and thus match well with future research direction of Qatar. For existing cathode materials, parameters including transition metal, polyanion, synthetic condition, particle size, and phase impurity will be investigated to improve potentials, capacities, lithiation/delithiation mechanisms, rate capabilities, safety and life times. Simultaneously, completely novel crystal structures or relatively unexplored ones with well-defined channel structures will be pursued.