Date of Award
12-1-2014
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Physics
First Advisor
Talapatra, Saikat
Abstract
The behavior of 2D materials has become of great interest in the wake of development of electrochemical double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) and the discovery of monolayer graphene by Geim and Novoselov. This study aims to analyze the response variance of 2D electrode materials for EDLCs prepared through the liquid-phase exfoliation method when subjected to differing conditions. Once exfoliated, samples are tested with a series of structural characterization methods, including tunneling electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A new ionic liquid for EDLC use, 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate is compared in performance to 6M potassium hydroxide aqueous electrolyte. Devices composed of liquid-phase exfoliated graphene / MoS2 composites are analyzed by concentration for ideal performance. Device performance under cold extreme temperatures for the ionic fluid is presented as well. A brief overview of by-layer analysis of graphene electrode materials is presented as-is. All samples were tested with cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, with good capacitive results. The evolution of electrochemical behavior through the altered parameters is tracked as well.
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