UC student finds passion for research in Nanoworld Lab

When you send equipment up into space, it has to generate energy by itself. Typically, scientists and engineers rely on lithium-ion batteries to provide a long-lasting charge. However, these kinds of batteries have their limitations – they’re bulky, heavy and can easily overheat.

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati’s Nanoworld Laboratories have two major contracts – with NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense – to find a more efficient, longer-lasting energy storage device.

“[NASA and the Department of Defense] want the most energy storage for the lowest weight,” says chemical engineering student Matthew Nichols, one of the undergraduate research assistants in Nanoworld. “If you’re shooting something into space, every ounce matters.”

Nichols has spent three of his cooperative education (co-op) rotations working in Nanoworld under his mentor, UC professor of chemical engineering and co-director of Nanoworld Vesselin Shanov, PhD.

Nanoworld is focused on two major carbon-based materials that could potentially replace lithium-ion batteries in space: graphene and carbon nanotubes. Graphene is a flat sheet of hexagonal carbon atoms that can be transformed into a 3D structure combined with carbon nanotubes using a process called chemical vapor deposition. This hybrid of graphene and carbon nanotubes is lightweight, flexible and efficient. This hybrid is was what Nichols is synthesizing and testing.

Nanoworld has two chemical vapor deposition reactors, and Nichols operates both of them. His primary responsibility is to find a catalyst that can synthesize the best graphene to use for energy storage.

The standard catalyst used to synthesize graphene, explains Nichols, is nickel foil. This method, however, has its downsides: first, the pure nickel required in the process is expensive; second, the process only produces a few layers of graphene.