Laser Synthesis and Microfabrication of Micro/Nanostructured Materials Toward Energy Conversion and Storage

Abstract

Nanomaterials are known to exhibit a number of interesting physical and chemical properties for various applications, including energy conversion and storage, nanoscale electronics, sensors and actuators, photonics devices and even for biomedical purposes. In the past decade, laser as a synthetic technique and laser as a microfabrication technique facilitated nanomaterial preparation and nanostructure construction, including the laser processing-induced carbon and non-carbon nanomaterials, hierarchical structure construction, patterning, heteroatom doping, sputtering etching, and so on. The laser-induced nanomaterials and nanostructures have extended broad applications in electronic devices, such as light–thermal conversion, batteries, supercapacitors, sensor devices, actuators and electrocatalytic electrodes. Here, the recent developments in the laser synthesis of carbon-based and non-carbon-based nanomaterials are comprehensively summarized. An extensive overview on laser-enabled electronic devices for various applications is depicted. With the rapid progress made in the research on nanomaterial preparation through laser synthesis and laser microfabrication technologies, laser synthesis and microfabrication toward energy conversion and storage will undergo fast development.

Electrochemical Lithium Storage Performance of Molten Salt Derived V2SnC MAX Phase

“…It should be noted that the electrochemical performance of the V 2 SnC was obtained with an electrode contains that only 5 wt% acetylene black while previous reported studies were investigated with at least 10 wt% of conducting carbon [12,18]. That is, compared to other lithium storage anodes such as silicon or metal oxides [25][26][27], a lower amount of conducting carbon is needed for the metallic conducting V 2 SnC electrode. The decrease of conducting carbon may be important for increasing the volumetric capacity considering the low density of carbon as compare to MAX phases.…”

Recent Advances on MOF Derivatives for Non-Noble Metal Oxygen Electrocatalysts in Zinc-Air Batteries

“…Therefore, to eradicate the environmental issues, there is an urgent need to explore and develop new sustainable energy alternatives for the traditional non-renewable energy systems [ 2 – 4 ]. Hence, alternate electrochemical energy storage devices [ 5 ], such as fuel cells [ 6 – 11 ], lithium-ion batteries [ 12 , 13 ], solar cells [ 14 , 15 ], supercapacitors [ 16 – 18 ] and metal-air batteries [ 19 – 26 ] have been widely explored. Among these renewable sources, zinc-air batteries have attracted great attention due to their high specific energy density, environmental friendliness and safety [ 27 – 29 ].…”

Laser irradiation construction of nanomaterials toward electrochemical energy storage and conversion: Ongoing progresses and challenges

“…Although several articles have extensively reviewed the advances in electrode materials for supercapacitors, 139,[141][142][143][144] most of them are synthesized using conventional synthetic methods which are commonly time-and/or energy-consuming. As a simple yet high-efficiency materials-processing strategy, laser irradiation has been extensively utilized to regulate specific structures of electrode materials for advanced supercapacitors, 145,146 A variety of laserinduced nanomaterials involved supercapacitors are summarized in Table 2.…”

“…Recently, the laser irradiation technique has been confirmed as a powerful tool to modulate the electrocatalytic materials for enhanced catalytic performance, including structural defects, heterostructures, and novel electrode design (Table 3). 22,145,146 The PLD approach has been widely utilized to fabricate high-performance nanomaterials for electrocatalysis, facilitating improved electrocatalytic performance. 5,22,[169][170][171] As a typical example, Tour et al irradiated pinewood with high lignin content into hierarchical porous LIG with excellent electrical conductivity (10 Ω per square) using CO 2 laser scribing (Figure 11(A)).…”