ABSTRACT

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:

A variety of energy storage materials will be essential in years to come as alternative energy sources become an increasing part of the world's energy portfolio. Stable, high-capacity, efficient, and inexpensive battery materials are needed, but no one type of storage solution will the best for every type of application. The focus of this research program is to study a class of compounds called metal hexacyanoferrates (HCFs), which show promise as battery materials. HCFs consist of more earth-abundant elements, which will decrease the cost for future device implementations, and because of their open crystal structure, they have increased stability over many charge-discharge cycles. With support from the Metals and Metallic Nanostructures program of the Division of Materials Research, Associate Professor of Physics Jennifer Hampton and a team of undergraduate students at Hope College will fabricate HCF thin films using electrochemical methods. They will quantify the effects of both composition and structure on the energy storage properties of the resulting materials. By doing so, they will increase our understanding of these HCF films, opening up a broader range of materials available for use in advanced battery technologies. This interdisciplinary research program will involve undergraduate students with interests in physics, chemistry, and materials engineering. The students will contribute to research at the boundaries between the different disciplines and will receive training in a significant area of new science which will be broadly applicable to a variety of careers in the modern workforce.

TECHNICAL SUMMARY:

Open-framework intercalation compounds such as metal hexacyanoferrates (HCFs) have gained increasing interest as materials for energy storage applications. The goal of this research program is to characterize HCF films made by electrochemically modifying metal thin film substrates. Associate Professor of Physics Jennifer Hampton and a team of undergraduate students at Hope College will fabricate HCF films and characterize their charge storage and charge transport properties. Specifically, by taking advantage of the wide array of deposition and post-processing techniques available with electrochemistry, starting materials with varying metal composition and deliberately controlled microstructure will be produced for the subsequent HCF formation step. By quantifying the effects of both composition and structure on the resulting charge storage properties of the HCF films, the team will advance the fundamental knowledge of charge transport in this class of open-framework intercalation compounds and will assist in the development of advanced battery technologies for specific applications. Additionally, a new laboratory unit on AC electrochemical analysis will be developed for use in an upper-level physics laboratory course at Hope College, strengthening the connections between current research and education in the context of an undergraduate institution. This work is funded by the Metals and Metallic Nanostructures program of the Division of Materials Research.

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