Clemson Nanomaterials Institute

Collaborative Research

A collaborative research between CNI and Academia Sinica found low thermal conductivity in Sb-doped GeTe, which resulted from the dopant-induced changes in the phonon spectra. This study provides a new direction in phonon engineering of single crystalline thermoelectric materials beyond nanostructuring.

TENG

Novel fullerene-enhanced triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is demonstrated in which the C60 active layer when added to an already high-performance triboelectrode, further improves the TENG performance.

Prospects of Electrode Materials and Electrolytes for Practical Potassium‐Based Batteries

Potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) have attracted tremendous attention because of their
high energy density and low-cost. As such, much effort has focused on developing electrode
materials and electrolytes for PIBs at the material levels. This review begins with an overview
of the high-performance electrode materials and electrolytes, and then evaluates their
prospects and challenges for practical PIBs to penetrate the market. The current status of PIBs
for safe operation, energy density, power density, cyclability, and sustainability is discussed
and future studies for electrode materials, electrolytes, electrode-electrolyte interfaces are
identified. It is anticipated that this review will motivate research and development that fill
existing gaps for practical potassium-based full batteries so that they may be commercialized
in the near future.

Graphene

Large-scale low-cost preparation methods for high quality graphene are critical for advancing graphene-based applications in energy storage, and beyond. Here, we present a sulfur-assisted method that converts benzene rings of tetraphenyltin into high purity crystalline graphene. The three dimensional few layer graphene microspheres (FLGMs) proved ideal for energy storage applications.

About The Clemson Nanomaterials Institute (CNI) Research Group

The Clemson Nanomaterials Institute (CNI) is dedicated to exploring the fundamental properties of nanomaterials, and their applications. We utilize electric arcs, lasers, ultrasonication, spark plasma sintering and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to prepare a wide range of nanomaterials. Few examples include the CVD growth of aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), helically coiled MWNTs and nanowires, branched MWNTs, and low-melting metal oxide nanowires on various substrates such as …