Abstract
Hybrid metal/metal oxide—poly-para-xylylene (PPX) nanocomposites have attracted great interest, because of a broad spectrum of applications. A simple, low-cost preparation technique has been developed and comprises a cold-wall vacuum co-deposition technique. This co-deposition technique has been applied to synthesize nanocomposites, containing PPX and nanoparticles of Al, Sn, Zn, Ti and their oxides. Important is the oxidation kinetics of the metal clusters to their oxides in relation to the percolation threshold. The structure, microstructure, and properties of these composite materials have been studied by X-Ray diffraction, AFM, TEM, and electrical measurements. Anticipated applications of the present composites are photanodes for hydrogen production, active lithium-ion rechargeable battery materials, and chemical gas sensors. An important aspect of these composite materials is the nature of the interfacial properties of the nanostructured particles and the PPX material. The properties of selected composites will be discussed with focus on the nanos-tructured TiO2/PPX composites as an anode material for a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Dr. Radmir Gaynutdinov (Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Science) for the atomic force microscopy characterization, to Dr. Dan Simon (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands) for electrochemical characterization, and to The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research for financial support of the project (NWO, grant no. 047.011.2003.004).
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Schoonman, J., Zavyalov, S., Pivkina, A. (2009). Nanostructured Composites: Structure, Properties, and Applications in Electrochemistry. In: Leite, E.R. (eds) Nanostructured Materials for Electrochemical Energy Production and Storage. Nanostructure Science and Technology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-49323-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-49323-7_6
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