The Future of Industrial Decarbonization and Nanotechnology through Atomic Layer Processing

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in the development of scalable tools for nanomaterials synthesis. Many emerging technologies, like solar cells, batteries, catalysts, and membranes, rely on atomically-precise materials design to operate effectively. Tools for creating these materials with increased scalability and decreased costs are thus required to enable the widespread adoption of these technologies. One suite of tools, known collectively as atomic layer processing (ALP), is particularly interesting for nanomaterials synthesis, due to its ability to create ultrathin films with sub-nanometer thickness and compositional control. ALP has also been used in the semiconductor industry over several decades, making it easy to deploy in other manufacturing processes. Commercial solar panels and battery electrodes have already started to incorporate ALP-deposited films as passivation layers. However, as demand for nanotechnology increases, there is a continued need to expand the library of materials that can be made with these tools and to accelerate the pace with which these materials are deployed.<br/><br/>In this presentation, in addition to highlighting my journey navigating the academic job search as a qay scientist, I will highlight how my research group at the University of Washington is expanding the applicability of ALP to create new technologies in sustainability. First, the use of vapor phase infiltration (VPI) to modify polymers will be discussed, highlighting our work to make polymer membranes conductive and to upgrade their chemical and thermal stability. Next, I will describe how molecular layer deposition (MLD) can be used create hybrid organic-inorganic thin films, exploring our work to make atomically precise catalysts for improved electrochemical stability and activity. Last, I will describe how high-throughput materials testing is needed for rapid materials deployment, exploring our group’s work to construct a high-throughput deposition system and to collect data on processing conditions into a database for additional analysis. Through these projects, our group expects to greatly expand the library of materials accessible to ALP and improve the speed with which these new materials can be translated into commercial technologies.