This proposal will determine the technical and economic viability of scaling up ultra-thin film deposition processes for exfoliated single atomic layers.
The PI has developed methods to produce exfoliated nanosheets from a range of layered materials such as graphene, transition metal chalcogenides and transition metal oxides. These 2D materials have immediate and far-reaching potential in several high-impact technological applications such as microelectronics, composites and energy harvesting and storage.
2DNanoCaps (ERC ref: 278516) has already demonstrated that lab-scale ultra-thin graphene-based supercapacitor electrodes for energy storage result in unusually high power performance and extremely long device life-time (100% capacitance retention for 5000 charge-discharge cycles at the high power scan rate of 10,000 mV/s). This performance is remarkable- an order of magnitude better than similar systems produced with more conventional methods, which cause materials restacking and aggregation. 2D nanosheets also offer the chance of exploring the unique possibility of manufacturing conductive, robust, thin, easily assembled electrode and solid electrolytes to realize highly flexible and all-solid-state supercapacitors. This opportunity is particularly relevant from the industrial point of view especially in relation to the flammability issues of the electrolytes used for commercial energy storage devices at present.
In order to develop and exploit any of the applications listed above, it will be imperative to develop deposition methods and techniques capable of obtaining industrial-scale “sheet-like” coverage, where flake re-aggregation is avoided.
We believe our combination of unique material properties and cost effective, robust and production-scalable process of ultra-thin deposition will enable us to compete for significant global market opportunities in the energy-storage space