AP Seminar: Liquid metals – a new platform for nanomaterial synthesis and catalysis

Liquid metals are an emerging class of compounds that are liquid close to room temperature yet exhibit metallic conductivity. Liquid metals have found application in the design of flexible and reconfigurable electronics and more recently emerged as a platform for the synthesis of nano-structures as well as a unique class of catalysts that is extraordinarily resilient towards deactivation. In comparison to other liquids such as covalent solvents and ionic liquids, comparatively little is known about the chemistry that occurs inside molten metals. This talk covers the emerging picture of liquid metal chemistry and will report our most recent results for solid-metal-in-liquid-metal colloidal systems and the synthesis of 2D materials. Furthermore, our recent results in the area of CO₂ reduction to graphene and NH₃ synthesis will be covered. Ammonia production is one of the most important processes that is currently conducted on industrial scales. One off the main challenges is that the currently employed Haber-Bosch catalysts require high pressures and temperatures. In this work we demonstrate a novel liquid metal catalyst that can overcome many of the challenges of conventional ammonia catalysts.