Zeolite-Templated Carbon: Model Carbonaceous Materials with Unexpected Properties

Nicholas P. Stadie, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Montana State University

Abstract: Diamond, graphite, and the reduced-dimension variants of graphite (fullerenes, nanotubes, and graphene) dominate the discussion of carbon’s properties; but there is a missing allotrope! Triply-periodic, negatively curved “schwarzite” remains elusive. In our efforts toward the synthesis of the next carbon nanomaterial, we explore a class of materials with near-schwarzite structures, obtained via high-fidelity carbon replication of the pore network of a zeolite template. Such materials have extensive edge structure, resembling a periodic array of functionalized graphene nanoribbons, separated at a distance of order 1 nm. Several interesting properties of this model class of carbonaceous solids will be presented: unusually low bulk modulus, high density of unpaired spins, exceptional isotropic electrical conductivity, and widely tunable coefficient of thermal expansion.

Bio: Nicholas P. Stadie received a B.S. in chemistry from Arizona State University where he performed research on zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) under Prof. Michael O’Keeffe. At the California Institute of Technology, he undertook studies of high-surface-area carbonaceous framework materials and their gas adsorption properties under Prof. Brent Fultz, receiving a Ph.D. in materials science in 2013. His attention turned to reactive, unstable porous phases of hydrogen-rich materials such as magnesium borohydride under Prof. Andreas Züttel at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science & Technology (Empa). After a second postdoctoral position at ETH Zürich applying porous carbon materials as exotic battery electrodes in the laboratory of Prof. Maksym Kovalenko, he returned to North America in 2017 and is now an associate professor at Montana State University. His research interests combine synthetic solid-state chemistry with experimental studies of gas−surface interactions, especially under high-pressure conditions.