Investigation on metal nano-structures : development of devices and catalysis for electrochemical energy conversion/storage

• Main Author: Fei, Jipeng
• Other Authors: Tang Xiaohong
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76735
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This thesis contains two projects which are all related to metal nano-structure extrusion. The overall purpose of this thesis is to find proper substrate which is hard and porous. Moreover, the pore diameters should in several hundreds of nanometers. This substrate can work as template for ultrasonic nanowire extrusion. These two projects are possible methods for fabricating the ideal template which can facilitate the nanowire extrusion. The usage of metal nano-structures in gas catalytic action is widely investigated nowadays. Useful setup for the novel metal nanowires extrusion method should be proposed and fabricated to efficiently withdraw the metal nanowires. Thus, various template fabrication materials/ methods have been investigated to get stable nano-porous template with uniform penetrating arrays inside. Several useful templates/ methods including porous anodized alumina (PAA) with different pore diameters and polystyrene sphere template fabrication method were investigated during the project. Meanwhile, we also try to optimize the current PAA fabrication method to get ideal template. Various characterizations have been conducted to evaluate the product from different sights. It’s worth noting that the self-designed setup in this project provide a possible solution for clean and stable PAA fabrication. Exploration for effective parameters also reveals principle for PAA fabrication. Besides, it’s the first time the PAA fabrication is explored under ultra-low temperature around (-10℃~ -20℃) and some new additives are used to prevent the reaction failure. Systematic method of fabricating free-standing PAA method is also established in this project. Another project is related to the self-assembly process of polymer sphere on the liquid surface and the layer transfer process onto smooth substrate. Proper experiment setup is designed to explore the best factors in assembling layer with single sphere thickness. Characterizations have been conducted to verify the quality of patterned layer.