(266b) Tailoring Processes and Assembly of Polymer, Ceramic and Graphenic Materials for Electrochemical Energy Storage Applications

Despite their promise to mitigate many problems and offer new opportunities in energy storage systems, nanomaterials have proven to be difficult to tailor and preserve their assembly throughout manufacturing processes when a scale-up is considered. My group has been working on understanding and modification of instability driven processes to devise scalable synthesis and manufacturing processes such as flow controlled continuous Taylor-Couette reactor, gas-assisted electrospinning and air-controlled electrospray which can also provide the tailored assembly of polymer, ceramic and graphenic materials at nano and micron scales. I will show several examples of using these processes to assemble various nanomaterials in the development of next generation battery materials, including: 1) thermally stable, non-flammable polymer/ceramic hybrid separator and high capacity silicon/graphene anode for high performance Li-ion batteries; 2) layered sulfur/graphene cathode for high rate capable Li-sulfur batteries, and 3) graphene coated electrodes for chemical flow batteries with high power density and high areal capacity.