Porous One-Dimensional Nanomaterials: Design, Fabrication and Applications in Electrochemical Energy Storage.

Electrochemical energy storage technology is of critical importance for portable electronics, transportation and large-scale energy storage systems. There is a growing demand for energy storage devices with high energy and high power densities, long-term stability, safety and low cost. To achieve these requirements, novel design structures and high performance electrode materials are needed.

Copper-based conductive composites with tailored thermal expansion.

We have devised a moderate temperature hot-pressing route for preparing metal-matrix composites which possess tunable thermal expansion coefficients in combination with high electrical and thermal conductivities. The composites are based on incorporating ZrW2O8, a material with a negative coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), within a continuous copper matrix. The ZrW2O8 enables us to tune the CTE in a predictable manner, while the copper phase is responsible for the electrical and thermal conductivity properties.

Nanostructured systems for biological materials.

The sol-gel process is a chemical technique for immobilizing biomolecules in an inorganic, transparent matrix. The dopant biomolecules reside in an interconnected mesoporous network and become part of the nanostructured architecture of the entire material. In this chapter, we review the sol-gel immobilization approach and discuss how it leads to the stabilization of a number of proteins against aggressive chemical and thermal environments.