PRIMARY RESEARCH INTERESTS Material development for energy storage and conversion devices Students will gain hands-on experience with a variety of analytical instrumentation and techniques related to energy storage and conversion including: UV-vis, fluorometer, potentiostat/electrochemistry, FTIR, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, FTIR microscopy, dynamic light scattering, X-ray diffraction, inert atmosphere glovebox operation, battery cell assembly and testing, and general laboratory protocols/practices.
1. Weakly coordinating anion electrolytes – Current lithium ion batteries are a ubiquitous part of our daily lives, however, there is an inherent safety risk associated with their use. This is due to the poor stability of the flammable organic electrolyte solution utilized to shuttle the lithium ions between the anode and the cathode during charging and discharging. The goal of this project is to evaluate new electrolyte salts contains weakly coordinating anions (WCA) such as the closo-borate family of salts. Due to their extreme thermal and chemical stability they can be readily incorporated into common liquid, composite, and solid-state electrolyte formats.
2. Fluorescent carbon nanomaterials – Due to the unique nature of carbon it can adopt many different structural allotropes: 3-D (diamond, graphite), 2-D (graphene), 1-D (nanotube), or 0-D (fullerene). Each of these allotropes have unique photophysical properties allowing them to interact with various wavelengths of light. This has led to their utilization in various applications from biological imaging to fluorescent polymers. The research from this lab will develop novel carbon based nanocomposite materials that can be utilized as multimodal imaging agents in biological systems and for energy down conversion devices such as LEDs.
3. Department of Energy (DOE) Research - In support of various DOE missions and projects we have collaborated with Savannah River National Lab and Sandia National Lab through subcontracts on various projects including: non-platinum group metal fuel cell catalysts, lanthanide hydride super conductors, perovskite solar cells, and solar batteries.