An Electrochemical Engineering Approach to the Templating of Nanostructured Layers

The synthesis of nanostructured materials to date has typically involved production and characterisation of samples with small geometric area (a few square centimetres). This project is aimed at addressing the synthesis and engineering aspects involoved with increased scale production of nanostructured films.Appreciation of the effects of reaction environment on deposit quality will make possible the production of uniform nanostructured deposits on a scale that is of technological interest.Novel nanostructured coatings will be prepared using surfactant templating methods and correlations between reaction conditions and resultant deposit properties will be established. A fundamental investigation of the reaction environment with an electrochemical engineering approach (combining experimental work and simulations) will facilitate uniform current and potential distributions in a controlled flow reactor.The synthesis of such coatings, having geometric areas of circa 100 cm2, will enable their evaluation in a number of electrochemical applications. For example, the operational and performance characteristics in Li-ion battery, supercapacitor and H2-air fuel cell device environments will be established.