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I have invented several new approaches to introduce carbon atoms into either single element liquid metals or liquid metal alloys, offering possible new directions for synthesizing new carbon allotropes or new methods for making known carbon materials such as diamond, graphite, others, (and that may open many other new research paths). The second part of this talk will be about these new ideas. Please note that I will not be “spelling out in great detail what to do” with my new approaches. Here, I paint my new ideas “with a broad brush”, partly because of the time of a standard lecture, but also because I want to leave the audience “space to think for yourselves”. 
 
First, I describe some of our research on diamond: (i) Kinetics of dissolving single crystal diamond at its interface with metal films, specifically nickel and cobalt films [1]; (ii) Growth of diamond in liquid metal on (a) single crystal diamond (seeded growth) [2], and (b) homogeneous nucleation and growth of diamond (seedless growth) [3]. 
 
Next, I describe my two new ways to introduce C atoms into liquid metals [4]. This is basic science at this early stage and the ideas are new. So. Time to both think and also to go into the lab and discover new science. 
 
I’ll try to finish my talk such that we have about 40 to 60 minutes for the Question-and-Answer session. For me, the most important part of “giving a talk” is after it is finished, which is when the audience asks many questions and offers useful and interesting comments.  
 

1. Yunqing Li, Yongchul Kim, Pavel V. Bakharev, Won Kyung Seong, Chohee Hyun, Dulce C. Camacho-Mojica, Liyuan Zhang, Benjamin V. Cunning, Tae Joo Shin, Geunsik Lee, and Rodney S. Ruoff. Dissolving diamond: kinetics of the dissolution of (100) and (110) single crystals in nickel and cobalt films. Chemistry of Materials. (2022), 34(6): 2599-2611.
2. Yan Gong, Da Luo, Myeonggi Choe, Chohee Hyun, Chunhui Wang, Meihui Wang, Tae Joo Shin, Zonghoon Lee, Da Zhan, Rodney S. Ruoff. Homoepitaxial Diamond Grown in a Liquid Metal Solvent. ChemRxiv. (2022), 10.26434.
3. Yan Gong, Da Luo, Myeonggi Choe, Won Kyung Seong, Pavel Bakharev, Meihui Wang, Seulyi Lee, Tae Joo Shin, Zonghoon Lee, Rodney Ruoff. Growth of diamond in liquid metal at 1 atmosphere pressure. Research Square DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3130239/v1
4. Rodney S. Ruoff. Delivering C, B, and N Atoms into Liquid Metals in Which They Are Normally Insoluble.  Nano Lett. 2024, 24, 5, 1467–1470. 

 

Biography

Rodney S. Ruoff (here, with mustache), UNIST Distinguished Professor (The Departments of Chemistry and Materials Science, and The School of Energy Science and Chemical Engineering), directs the Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials (CMCM), an Institute for Basic Science Center (IBS Center) located at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) campus. Prior to joining UNIST in 2014, he was the Cockrell Family Regents Endowed Chair Professor at the University of Texas at Austin from September, 2007. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Illinois-Urbana in 1988, and was a Fulbright Fellow in 1988-89 at the Max Planck Institute für Strömungsforschung in Göttingen, Germany. He was at Northwestern University from January 2000 to August 2007, where he was the John Evans Professor of Nanoengineering and director of NU’s Biologically Inspired Materials Institute, and did research at the Molecular Physical Laboratory, SRI International for 6 years after being a postdoctoral fellow at IBM TJ Watson Research Center. Further information about Rod is at http://cmcm.ibs.re.kr/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_S._Ruoff