Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: Thurs., Mar. 28 at 4:00 in 112 MEEM. Title: “Scalable Nanomanufacturing for Energy Storage and Conversion Based on High-Voltage Electrophoretic Deposition”
Sunand Santhanagopalan, Graduate Student, Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Department, Michigan Technological University
Sunand Santhangopalan is currently a doctoral candidate at the Department of Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics of Michigan Tech. After he joined Michigan Tech in January 2008, Mr. Sunand became part of the Multi-Scale Energy Systems Laboratory (MuSES Lab), advised by Dr. Dennis Meng, to work on various
research projects related to scalable micro- and nanotechnology for energy and sustainability. The research and education activities of MuSES Lab have been funded by NSF, ACS and US DoE. The work undertaken during his doctoral studies have resulted in papers published in journals like ACS Nano, Langmuir, and Key Engineering Materials.
Title: Scalable Nanomanufacturing for Energy Storage and Conversion Based on High-Voltage Electrophoretic Deposition
Abstract: Nanomaterials can significantly enhance many types of energy storage and conversion devices by providing huge surface reaction area, short diffusion paths, as well as excellent mechanical, electrical and electrochemical properties. However, it has been realized that the exciting performance of nanomaterials demonstrated in lab-scale experiments can lose its edge if the morphology cannot be well controlled and economically scaled up for macroscopic systems.
Accordingly, scalable and sustainable nanomanufacturing has been identified as a critical national research need by NSF, DOE, NIST and other federal agencies. In this talk, a roomtemperature, scalable process will be introduced to deposit vertically-aligned nanoforests of 1D nanoparticles (e.g., carbon nanotubes and MnO2 nanorods) on large, flexible conductive surfaces in a continuous roll-to-roll-printing manner. The deposition process, named high-voltage electrophoretic deposition (HVEPD), has been enabled by three key elements: polarization by
high voltage for alignment, low dispersion concentration of the nanoparticles to avoid aggregation, and simultaneous formation of a holding layer by electrodeposition. A recentlyreported supercapacitor with HVEPD nanoforests not only achieved the record-high power density among MnO2-based systems, but also broke a common perception that reductionoxidation (redox) capacitors have to sacrifice power density to achieve higher energy density than electric double layer capacitors. The talk will also go into good practices and details of supercapacitor testing. The process also shows the capability to tune surface wettability, to
obtain superhydrophobic surfaces without any polymer coating and stable superhydrophilic surfaces. The deposition of superhydrophilic antifouling coatings on Microelectrode Arrays for neuron growth will be introduced. The talk will be concluded with future research directions on scalable nanomanufacturing of fractal nanoparticles and 3D batteries, as well as discuss the future direction for supercapacitor research.