Hybrid plasma-enabled nanostructures for advanced supercapacitors

The project will explore an environmentally friendly approach to the synthesis, engineering, and design of hybrid nanomaterials-based carbon electrodes using plasma-enhanced deposition techniques. Plasma design of electrodes offers a binder-free preparation approach by directly fabricating electrode materials on the current collectors (substrate) in a single process step. This technique provides a green soft chemistry approach for the development of advanced electrodes at high speed and low cost. Although plasma deposition techniques have tremendous potential for energy applications, several fundamental research issues need to be addressed in order to use plasma as a commercially applicable technique for developing high performance nanocarbon hybrid electrodes for supercapacitors. This project will address the key challenges and the following questions: 1. Development of a unique plasma system for large area nanocarbons with different morphology, orientation and crystalline structure. It is important to develop a plasma system that can synthesize different nanocarbons by adjusting the parameters. In addition, the mechanism of switching from horizontal to vertical structures needs to be elucidated in detail. The influence of individual discharge and corresponding plasma parameters on the growth mechanism needs to be identified. 2. Explore an approach for controlled defect manipulation and surface engineering of nanocarbons. Defect manipulation of nanocarbons by creating vacancies, surface functionalization, and doping with a heteroatom is the direct method to control surface chemistry. Each doped atom and the degree of defects play an important role in the electrochemical performance of supercapacitors. Therefore, it is critical to develop a technique to fabricate nanocarbons with predefined surface chemistry. 3. Understanding the unknown area of the effects of dopants on electrochemical kinetics. Nanocarbons doped with different heteroatoms have different intrinsic physical properties and electrochemical effects. The effects of a particular functional/atomic group and its configuration on the performance of a supercapacitor should be clarified. 4. Optimize suitable nanocarbon/redox active hybrids and improve mass loading. The structural composition and optimal mass loading of the active material are among the many unexplored issues related to supercapacitors. Recent research has shown that the specific combinations of nanocarbon-based electrodes and redox-active materials have high potential for supercapacitors. However, the proper configuration of electrodes to achieve high energy density is still unsolved. Therefore, plasma-designed hybrid electrodes with vertical orientation and redox active centers can improve energy storage performance, and these hybrids could meet industrial requirements with sufficient mass loading to achieve high energy density. 5. Design of hybrid carbon-based autonomous supercapacitors. Optimization of electrode morphology, proper choice of dopant or functionalization group, and appropriate pseudocapacitive material still need to be identified to improve device capacitance and energy density. 6. Optimization of electrode configuration for high-frequency filter applications. Although few novel structures are known, the capacitance at high frequencies is relatively low. Therefore, the specific morphology, micropore structure, and vertical channels need to be identified for practical filter applications.