LLE – CO2-Switchable Materials

January 10, 2018 @ 12:00 pm
WB 116
200 College St
Toronto, ON M5T 3A1

Lectures at the Leading Edge

“CO2-Switchable Materials”

Philip Jessop, Queen’s University

Industrial inefficiencies, causing wastage of energy and materials, are often the result of failures to resolve time-separated conflicting requirements. For example, a drying agent particle must to strongly absorb water from something that needs to be dried, but must easily release the water when the drying agent is being regenerated. Switchable materials can solve such problems. Waste CO2 is a renewable material that can be used to reversibly trigger changes in the properties of liquids, solutes, or surfaces. This presentation will portray two different classes of switchable materials, a class of switchable solvents and a series of switchable surfaces, and discuss how their design and use can help solve practical problems (e.g.water purification, paints and coatings) while reducing environmental impact.