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Developing Nanomaterials for Energy Conversion

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2010, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Chemistry.
This thesis studid the synthesis and characterization of N-doped nanostructuredmetal oxides nanoparticles (NPs) for photocatalysis, stoichiometric control Cu2-xS nanocrystals (NCs) for potential photovoltaic application and chalcogenide nanomaterials for ther-moelectric (TE) application. A sol-gel chemical approach was introduced to synthesis of N-doped TiO2 and CeO2 NPs with controllable doping level. Post-synthesis sintering treatments on N-doped metal oxide NPs indicate that sintering in air provides the best visible-light photocatalytic activities. Different copper deficient copper sulfides Cu2-xS (x=1, 0.2 0.03) NCs were prepared by sonoelectrochemical, hydrothermal and thermoly-sis approaches, their structural and optical properties were characterized and investigated. Nanostructured PbSe thin films were fabricated by a chemical bath deposition method. Thermoelectric transport measurements showed improvement on thermoelectric perfor-mance by anisotropic growth of nanostructured PbSe thin film. To achieve better TE performance, nanostructured thermoelectric telluride thin films were electrochemically deposited under mild reaction condition. For the bulk TE measurement, a gram scale synthesis of Bi2Te3 and Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 NCs was successfully conducted by ligand-based reaction. It is found that annealing Bi2Te3 and Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 NCs at appreciated tempera-tures under Ar protection can significantly improve the power factor especially electrical conductivities of Bi2Te3 and Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 NCs, while keep the lower thermal conductivi-ties due to the maintaining of nanoscaled grain boundary. To further improving the TE properties of Bi2Te3 NCs, the carrier concentrations of the ternary Bi2-xSbxTe3 NCs were adjusted by introducing Sb-Te anti-site defects through controlling the Bi/Sb substitution ratio x in Bi2-xSbxTe3 solid solution NCs.
Clemens Burda (Advisor)
John Stuehr (Committee Chair)
Alfred Anderson (Committee Member)
Michael Zagorski (Committee Member)
Jeff Dyck (Committee Member)
223 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Zhao, Y. (2010). Developing Nanomaterials for Energy Conversion [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1270172686

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Zhao, Yixin. Developing Nanomaterials for Energy Conversion. 2010. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1270172686.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Zhao, Yixin. "Developing Nanomaterials for Energy Conversion." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1270172686

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)