3D reduced graphene oxide/sio2 composite for ice nucleation
AssigneeKhalifa University of Science and Technology
InventorsLinda Zou, Haoran Liang
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Abstract
The present invention provides for an ice-nucleating particle for cloud seeding and other applications, which can initiate ice nucleation at a temperature of −8° C. Further, the ice nucleation particle number increased continuously and rapidly with the reducing of temperature. The ice nucleating particle in the present invention is a nanostructured porous composite of 3-dimensional reduced graphene oxide and silica dioxide nanoparticles (PrGO-SN). The present invention also provides for a process for synthesizing the PrGO-SN.
Claims17
An ice nucleating composite for producing a plurality of ice crystals, wherein said composite is an interconnected 3D porous composite of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets and silicon dioxide nanoparticles, and the silicon dioxide nanoparticles occupy gaps between the rGO sheets, and the composite initiates ice nucleation at a temperature of −8° C.;
- and wherein said composite multiplies the ice crystals in number when the temperature decreases at or below −8° C.
A process for preparing an ice nucleating composite
- the process comprising the steps of:
- preparing an aqueous dispersed graphene oxide solution;
- adding the aqueous solution of graphene oxide to ethanol, ammonium hydroxide and tetraethyl orthosilicate forming a homogenous mixture;
- sonicating the homogenous mixture to obtain a sonicated mixture;
- heating the sonicated mixture in an autoclave for hydrothermal synthesis thus obtaining the ice nucleating composite of an interconnected 3D porous composite of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets and silicon dioxide nanoparticles;
- rinsing the ice nucleating composite with deionised water;
- and
- freeze-drying the composite to preserve the 3D micro-structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.