Atomic Layer Deposition of Nanodevices for Electrochemical Energy Devices

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My research program proposes an entirely novel and innovative approach to manufacturing electrochemical energy storage devices: Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). ALD offers the ability to deliver scalable integrated devices with no sacrifice in texturization. My group will fabricate solid-state, integrated devices by using a single ALD process to incorporate layers of electrodes and electrolytes on highly active, nanostructured substrates. This technology threatens to upend the status quo in electrochemical energy storage production, opening up new research avenues and paving the road for commercially viable scientific advances in energy storage. ******ALD is a thin-film deposition technique capable of ngström-level precision even over highly irregular structures. In a canonical two-precursor cycle, two gaseous precursors are pulsed one after another to enable a self-limiting reaction, resulting in a single layer of final material that has been deposited one atomic layer at a time. Repeating this cycle allows for precisely controlled films with growth rates on the order of 1 /cycle. ALD's unrivaled precision and conformality make it the ideal tool for my goal: innovative, generalizable mass production of nanostructured electrochemical energy storage (EES) devices. ******I aim to achieve this goal by focusing on the following short-term objectives for EES fabrication via ALD: (I) highly tunable, perovskite-based, solid-state ion-transport oxides; (II) minimally constrained device design for longer lifetimes via highly texturized nanostructured substrates (integration of cathode and electrolyte); and (III) high-throughput ALD through efficient recipe techniques and spatial design. These three research thrusts each bring fields of rich, promising potential applications aside outside of the energy storage realm. Achievement in each of these research focuses thus offers broad-reaching, contemporary implications for fields as diverse as thin-films, precise perovskite production for photovoltaics, LEDs, optoelectronics, and semiconductor devices.******If successful, these advances carry the potential to transform energy storage production and open up new avenues for scientific advances in energy storage that reach the commercial market. Doing so will bridge the gap between MEMS energy storage devices and large-scale power systems, allowing for smart energy grids with fully packaged distributed, yet centralized storage. Versatile and reliable, ALD can incorporate multiple energy storage mechanisms in a robust grid storage scheme: a battery may alleviate shortages during intermittent periods of high demand, while supercapacitors, with their superior power density, could be used to implement peak shaving and smoothing. Finally, the highly precise and conformal coating of ALD enables potential for significantly higher performance than current scalable energy storage can achieve.