Zhaojun Han
CSIRO Manufacturing, Australia
Title: Carbon-based hybrid nanostructures for energy storage applications
Biography
Biography: Zhaojun Han
Abstract
Transition metal oxides such as MnO2 and RuO2 are promising materials for achieving both high power and energy densities in energy storage devices. However, it remains a great challenge to develop these metal oxides-based high-performance electrodes due to their low electrical conductance and poor stability. At CSIRO we have studied a number of metal oxides such as mixed-valent MnO2 nanoparticles, MnO2 nanowires, and RuO2 nanofilms, and combined them with carbon-based nanostructures including graphite films and graphene, to fabricate nanohybrids in synergistic integration. We demonstrated controlled size, density, composition and morphology of the metal oxides, and developed several approaches such as plasma and electrochemical surface treatments to effectively improve the interfacial adhesion between metal oxides and carbon supports. The nanohybrids show both high specific capacitance and superior stability, which may open up new opportunities in areas such as lithium ion batteries, supercapacitors, catalysts, photosynthesis, and electrochemical sensors.