NUE 2003-2004

2D Battery with Planar Electrodes

Li ions are stored in a pair of planar carbon electrodes. Storage capacity is limited by the area of the electrodes / devices footprint.

Li ions are discharged during operation. They need to be recharged very soon.

3D Battery with Arrays of C-MEMS Electrodes

Li ions are stored in arrays of vertical posts constructed by carbon microelectromechanical systems (C-MEMS).

Storage capacity is enhanced by the increased total electrode area.

3D Battery with Arrays of C-MEMS / CNTs Electrodes

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are grown on the C-MEMS posts and form the arrays of C-MEMS / CNTs electrodes.

Additional Li ions can be stored in the CNTs, thus further enhancing the storage capacity.

3D Battery with Arrays of Vertically-Aligned CNTs

Arrays of C-MEMS posts can be totally replaced with an assembly of vertical CNTs bundles / micro-towers.

Due to the large surface area of these CNT micro-towers, the storage capacity is maximized with a small device footprint.

Can be simplified into a single chip device with alternating CNT micro-towers as the positive and negative electrodes.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Yoke Khip Yap
Assistant Professor of Physics

Flash Interface and 3D Animation

Dr. Susan E. Hill

This animation was made possible by the National Science Foundation. NSF Award Abstract - #0304439.