Nanotruss Projects

Lauren Montemayor, Lucas Meza, Victoria Chernow, Wendy Gu

Design and fabrication of nanoscale truss structures for advanced energy applications

Fracture/CompositesPolymer

Metal

Composites:1) Strength of Polymer/Metal

Bond2) Fracture Toughness3) Dynamic Properties

• Damping Effects• Wave Propagation

Fracture Toughness:1) Lattice Structure

(Stretching vs. Bending)

2) Unit Cell Dimensions3) Metal microstructure

Lauren - lmont@caltech.edu

Heat Transfer/Thermoelectrics

• SURF Tasks:– Fabrication of nanotruss structures using DLW TPL–Measurement of thermal properties of structures– Investigation into potential thermoelectric materials

3D Kagome Lattice Multilayered Truss Unit Cell

Lucas - lmeza@caltech.edu

Solar Cells

Silver Thin Film Deposition

Electroless plating or ALD

Nanotruss Fabrication

Malureanu, R. et al. J. Electrochem. Soc. 157, 12 (2010)

Electrodynamic calculations

Incorporation into PV device

Geometry optimization

Nanotruss Antireflective Coating

N-type Semiconductor

P-N Junction

P-type Semiconductor

Victoria - vchernow@caltech.edu

Si Truss Electrode for Li+ Batteries

Lithiation of Si 400% volume change mechanical stress

Goal: create a zero net volume expansion electrode based on truss geometry

Lithiation

Li+ battery

Si

Li+

Li+

Li+

Li+

Kasavajjula et al. (2007)

Wendy - xgu@caltech.edu