Lithium-ion battery technology is a critically important component of the emerging renewable energy infrastructure. Since battery technology was first commercialized in the 1990s, significant progress has been made in materials development, motivated by the prospect of higher energy and power densities, increased cycling longevity, and faster charging and discharging rates....
Nanomaterials present an exciting landscape of innovation at length scales below 100 nm, wherein controllable synthesis and materials metrology have led to tunable structure-property relationships and next-generation products. The disruptive field of nanotechnology is poised to capitalize upon the exotic chemistry and physics of these nanomaterials to enable more efficient...
Electrochemical energy storage devices have become increasingly relevant to the operation and sustainability of the modern world, as proliferation of mobile electronics, renewable electrical energy generators, electrical vehicles, and various high-tech bio-medical sensing device continues. The widespread need of easier to produce, better performing, and multifunctional energy storage materials in...
Graphene sheets (one-atom-thick, two-dimensional layers of sp2-bonded carbon) are predicted to have a range of unusual properties. Recent studies have shown that individual graphene sheets have extraordinary electrical properties, but an efficient method of graphite exfoliation remains a challenge. A number of approaches to exfoliation have been tried, such as...
Graphene offers promising opportunities for applications in printed and flexible electronic devices due to its high electrical and thermal conductivity, mechanical flexibility and strength, and chemical and environmental stability. However, scalable production and processing of graphene presents a critical technological challenge preventing the application of graphene for flexible electronic interconnects,...
Anisotropic semiconducting thin films have attracted attention in recent years for important applications such as electrical interconnects, electronic sensors, field-emission devices and thermoelectric devices. However, the characterization of the full conductivity tensor, especially the cross-plane conductivity, remains a great challenge for anisotropic thin films. In addition, the synthesis of large-area...