Shashikant P. Patole

A process to enhance the specific surface area and capacitance of hydrothermally reduced graphene oxide

The impact of post-synthesis processing in reduced graphene oxide materials for supercapacitor electrodes has been analyzed. A comparative study of vacuum, freeze and critical point drying was carried out for hydrothermally reduced graphene oxide demonstrating that the optimization of the specific surface area and preservation of the porous network are critical to maximize its supercapacitance performance. As described below, using a supercritical fluid as the drying medium, unprecedented values of the specific surface area (364 m2 g-1) and supercapacitance (441 F g-1) for this class of materials have been achieved.

An evaluation of microwave-assisted fusion and microwave-assisted acid digestion methods for determining elemental impurities in carbon nanostructures using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry

It is common for as-prepared carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphene samples to contain remnants of the transition metals used to catalyze their growth; contamination may also leave other trace elemental impurities in the samples. Although a full quantification of impurities in as-prepared samples of carbon nanostructures is difficult, particularly when trace elements are intercalated or encapsulated within a protective layer of graphitic carbon, reliable information is essential for reasons such as quantifying the adulteration of physico-chemical properties of the materials and for evaluating environmental issues. Here, we introduce a microwave-based fusion method to degrade single- and double-walled CNTs and graphene nanoplatelets into a fusion flux thereby thoroughly leaching all metallic impurities. Subsequent dissolution of the fusion product in diluted hydrochloric and nitric acid allowed us to identify their trace elemental impurities using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Comparisons of the results from the proposed microwave-assisted fusion method against those of a more classical microwave-assisted acid digestion approach suggest complementarity between the two that ultimately could lead to a more reliable and less costly determination of trace elemental impurities in carbon nanostructured materials.

Single-walled carbon nanotubes as stabilizing agents in red phosphorus Li-ion battery anodes

Phosphorus boasts extremely high gravimetric and volumetric capacities but suffers from poor electrochemical stability with significant capacity loss immediately after the first cycle. We propose to circumvent this issue by mixing amorphous red phosphorus with single-walled carbon nanotubes. Employing a non-destructive sublimation–deposition method, we have synthesized composites where the synergetic effect between red phosphorus and single-walled carbon nanotubes allows for a considerable improvement in the electrochemical stability of battery anodes. In contrast to the average 40% loss of capacity after 50 cycles for other phosphorus–carbon composites in the literature, our material shows losses of just 22% under analogous cycling conditions.

Tunable fractional-order capacitor using layered ferroelectric polymers

Pairs of various Polyvinylidene fluoride P(VDF)-based polymers are used for fabricating bilayer fractional order capacitors (FOCs). The polymer layers are constructed using a simple drop casting approach. The resulting FOC has two advantages: It can be easily integrated with printed circuit boards, and its constant phase angle (CPA) can be tuned by changing the thickness ratio of the layers. Indeed, our experiments show that the CPA of the fabricated FOCs can be tuned within the range from -83° to -65° in the frequency band changing from 150 kHz to 10 MHz. Additionally, we provide an empirical formula describing the relationship between the thickness ratio and the CPA, which is highly useful for designing FOCs with the desired CPA.

Structural changes of electron and ion beam-deposited contacts in annealed carbon-based electrical devices

The use of electron and ion beam deposition to make devices containing discrete nanostructures as interconnectors is a well-known nanofabrication process. Classically, one-dimensional materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been electrically characterized by resorting to these beam deposition methods. While much attention has been given to the interconnectors, less is known about the contacting electrodes (or leads). In particular, the structure and chemistry of the electrode-interconnector interface is a topic that deserves more attention, as it is critical to understand the device behavior. Here, the structure and chemistry of Pt electrodes, deposited either with electron or ion beams and contacted to a CNT, are analyzed before and after thermally annealing the device in a vacuum. Free-standing Pt nanorods, acting as beam-deposited electrode models, are also characterized pre- and post-annealing. Overall, the as-deposited leads contain a non-negligible amount of amorphous carbon that is consolidated, upon heating, as a partially graphitized outer shell enveloping a Pt core. This observation raises pertinent questions regarding the definition of electrode-nanostructure interfaces in electrical devices, in particular long-standing assumptions of metal-CNT contacts fabricated by direct beam deposition methods.

An ultra-broadband single-component fractional-order capacitor using MoS2-ferroelectric polymer composite

The phase angle of a fractional-order capacitors (FOC) impedance has a constant value between − 90 ° and 0 °. Maintaining this value over a broad frequency band is of utmost importance since it increases the applicability of the electrical circuit that employs the fractional-order capacitor (FOC). In this work, a molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)-ferroelectric polymer composite is used to design/fabricate an FOC. The resulting FOCs bandwidth of operation, which is defined as the frequency band where the variation in the phase angle is no more than ± 4 °, is five decades between 100 Hz and 10 MHz, a 3 decades improvement over the best reported state of the art. The value of the constant phase angle can be tuned from − 80 ° to − 58 ° by changing the type of the ferroelectric polymer in the composite and the volume ratio of MoS2. The results presented in this work demonstrate the potential of the FOCs fabricated using MoS2-ferroelectric polymer composites in robust and accurate realization of various electrical systems.The phase angle of a fractional-order capacitors (FOC) impedance has a constant value between − 90 ° and 0 °. Maintaining this value over a broad frequency band is of utmost importance since it increases the applicability of the electrical circuit that employs the fractional-order capacitor (FOC). In this work, a molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)-ferroelectric polymer composite is used to design/fabricate an FOC. The resulting FOCs bandwidth of operation, which is defined as the frequency band where the variation in the phase angle is no more than ± 4 °, is five decades between 100 Hz and 10 MHz, a 3 decades improvement over the best reported state of the art. The value of the constant phase angle can be tuned from − 80 ° to − 58 ° by changing the type of the ferroelectric polymer in the composite and the volume ratio of MoS2. The results presented in this work demonstrate the potential of the FOCs fabricated using MoS2-ferroelectric polymer composites in robust and accurate realization of vari...