Abstract

The depletion of unsustainable fossil fuels and growing environmental issues have given rise to scientific challenges and research interests in the development of renewable energy technologies to meet the rising global energy demand. Electrochemical energy storage and conversion technologies (ESCTs), such as lithium-ion batteries, metal-air batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells, etc., offer a clean and sustainable strategy for utilizing energy. As the core components, the electrode materials, including anodes, cathodes, and catalysts, play a direct decisive role in the device's performance in practical application. Therefore, the development of high-performance and low-cost electrode materials is critical for the success of these sustainable energy technologies. Inorganic nanostructured films (NFs) are the essential component for renewable energy storage technology owing to their unique merits: (i) high specific surface area and interconnected channels facilitating mass and ion transport; (ii) easy fabrication enabled by additive-free features; (iii) exposed active sites and abundant catalyst-electrolyte interface. Electrochemical method (deposition and etching) is a green and facile method used to fabricate NFs. In this dissertation research, a series of nanostructured alloy thin films (TFs) manufacturing based on controllable electrochemical method, and their application in renewable ESCTs (zinc-air batteries and lithium-ion batteries) were developed. For the zinc-air batteries, a dynamic gas-bubbles templates directed electrochemical process was proposed and designed to fabricate a series of porous platinum (Pt)-based alloy films, achieving the controllable porous structure and active catalytic sites exposure, which thus serve as high-performance zin-air batteries (ZABs) electrodes with high energy density and superior cycling performance. For the lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), a copper-tin (Cu-Sn) intermetallic coating layer (ICL) is designed by simple electrodeposition method to design highly stable Sn LIBs anode through a structural reconstruction process, providing regulatable distribution of Cu buffer agents to alleviate volume change and thus shows a remarkable cycling performance improvement with a dramatically reduced capacity decay at 2C rate for 1000 cycles. These additive-free, scalable, easily controllable, and room temperature electrochemical processes for NFs production and engineering strategies are successfully designed and applied in the field of ESCTs. They offer a feasible and low-cost way to develop advanced electrodes for high-performance energy storage and conversion devices.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2023

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Yang, Yang

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Materials Science and Engineering

Degree Program

Materials Science and Engineering

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0009627; DP0027657

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0027657

Language

English

Release Date

May 2023

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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