Transparent conductors as solar energy materials: A panoramic review

Nanoscale hydroxyapatite particles for bone tissue engineering

Polymer electrolytes are promising materials for electrochemical device applications, namely, high energy density rechargeable batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors, electrochromic displays, etc. The area of polymer electrolytes has gone through various developmental stages, i.e. from dry solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) systems to plasticized, gels, rubbery to micro/nano-composite polymer electrolytes. The polymer gel electrolytes, incorporating organic solvents, exhibit room temperature conductivity as high as ~10−3 S cm−1, while dry SPEs still suffer from poor ionic conductivity lower than 10−5 S cm−1. Several approaches have been adopted to enhance the room temperature conductivity in the vicinity of 10−4 S cm−1 as well as to improve the mechanical stability and interfacial activity of SPEs. In this review, the criteria of an ideal polymer electrolyte for electrochemical device applications have been discussed in brief along with presenting an overall glimpse of the progress made in polymer electrolyte materials designing, their broad classification and the recent advancements made in this branch of materials science. The characteristic advantages of employing polymer electrolyte membranes in all-solid-state battery applications have also been discussed.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/41/22/223001/pdf

Solid polymer electrolytes: materials designing and all-solid-state battery applications: an overview

Electrophoretic deposition of carbon nanotubes

Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is attracting increasing interest as a materials processing technique for a wide range of technical applications. This technique enables the production of unique microstructures and nanostructures as well as novel and complex material combinations in a variety of macroscopic shapes, dimensions and arrangements starting from micron-sized or nanosized particles. This review presents a comprehensive summary of relevant recent work on EPD describing the application of the technique in the processing of several traditional and advanced materials (functional and structural ceramic coatings, composite and porous materials, laminated ceramics, functionally graded materials, thin films and nanostructured materials), with the intention to highlight how EPD evolved from being a technique restricted only to traditional ceramics to become an important tool in advanced materials processing and nanotechnology. Moreover the fundamental EPD mechanisms and novel theories proposed to clarify the processes involved are explained.

Electrophoretic deposition: From traditional ceramics to nanotechnology

A method based on electrophoretic deposition (EPD) has been developed to produce uniform deposits of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on stainless-steel substrates. Aqueous suspensions were used under constant voltage conditions in the range of 5–50 V, with deposition times ranging from 0.5 to 10 min. The thickness of the coatings was controlled by variation of voltage and deposition time during EPD. Coatings of up to 10 μm thickness were achieved, with a homogeneous microstructure. The EPD technique is fast, effective, and can be applied to complex shapes. Possible applications are in heat extraction devices or porous coatings for tissue engineering scaffolds.

Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Coatings Using Electrophoretic Deposition (EPD)

Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is gaining increasing interest as a processing technique for production of novel inorganic nanostructured and nanoscale materials, including the use of nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanorods and related nanomaterials. Recent advances in the electrophoretic deposition of a great variety of ceramic and metallic nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes and other inorganic nanoscaled materials are discussed in this review. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the utility of an applied electric field to manipulate and control the deposition of electrically charged nanoscaled particles and other nanostructures on solid surfaces from liquid suspensions. A wide range of applications has been reviewed, demonstrating the high versatility and suitability of the EPD technique as a convenient nanotechnology processing tool. Nano-enamels and structural coatings, electrodes and films for fuel cells, capacitors, sensors and other microelectronic devices, fibre-reinforced and graded ceramic composites, nanostructured films and coatings for electronic, biomedical, optical, catalytic and electrochemical applications are some of the examples discussed. The combination of sol-gel methods and EPD for production of a variety of nanomaterials is also reviewed.

The electrophoretic deposition of inorganic nanoscaled materials : A review

Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) has been used in the present work to produce thick ceramic films from nanosized powders on different substrates for structural and functional applications. Hydrothermally synthesized ultra-fine (12 nm) yttrium disilicate (Y2Si2O7) powders were used to create an effective oxidation protection layer of 90 μm thickness on bulk SiC/SiC composite and on woven SiC fibre mats by EPD using a constant voltage of 8 V for 1.5 min. EPD was also used to make lead zirconate titanate (PZT) films on Pt wires for functional applications using hydrothermally synthesized PZT powders with an average particle size of 200 nm. EPD was employed to deposit PZT films directly from the hydrothermal PZT suspensions using a deposition voltage of 4 V for 10 min, leading to the formation of a functional PZT film with a thickness of 5 μm around Pt wire. Titania films on different stainless steel substrates (plates, individual fibres, fibre mats) were also produced by EPD at constant voltage conditions. A nonaqueous suspension of TiO2 nanoparticles in acetylacetone with iodine additions was used for optimal results, which were obtained using voltages of 10 V and deposition times of 2 min. Sintering at 800 °C for 2 h resulted in TiO2 coatings with uniform nanoporous structure, which are interesting for biomedical and photocatalytic applications. The effect of the process parameters such as deposition time and voltage as well as the solids-loading of the colloidal suspensions on the quality, thickness and microstructure of the different ceramic films produced is discussed.

Structural and functional thick ceramic coatings by electrophoretic deposition

45S5 Bioglass® coatings have been produced on stainless steel (type 304) plates by electrophoretic deposition (EPD). Aqueous suspensions of Bioglass® powder (mean particle size   800 °C led to a diffusion of nickel and titanium into the Bioglass® coating which was confirmed by EDX analysis. The results demonstrate that the EPD technique is a very useful method to produce uniform and reproducible Bioglass® coatings on metallic planar substrates and wires for biomedical applications. The technique presented here should be considered as a convenient alternative for bioactive coatings in comparison to other methods such as sol–gel coating and plasma-based deposition techniques.

B. J. C. Thomas

Papers

Electrophoretic deposition of carbon nanotubes

Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Coatings Using Electrophoretic Deposition (EPD)

The electrophoretic deposition of inorganic nanoscaled materials : A review

Structural and functional thick ceramic coatings by electrophoretic deposition

The electrophoretic deposition of Bioglass® particles on stainless steel and Nitinol substrates