Title: Functional nanostructure arrays realized by templates for energy conversion and storage devices

Biography:

Yong Lei is a Chair Professor at the Technical University of Ilmenau in Germany. His research interests are template-based nanostructuring, energy-related devices (sodium-ion battery, supercapacitors and PEC cells) and optoelectronics of functional nanostructures. So far he has authored 148 papers, many are published in high impact journals, such as Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, ACS Nano, Advanced Energy Materials, Energy & Environmental Science, Chemical Society Reviews, Progress in Materials Science. Prof. Lei received a few prestigious projects in Europe and Germany: ERC Starting Grant, ERC Proof of Concept Grant, and BMBF ZIK project.

Abstract

Functional nanostructures have drawn intensive attention with the development of miniaturization of modern and future devices. Realization of such nanostructures presents an important task for nanotechnology research and device applications. To address this challenge, template-based method provides a perfect approach owing to the geometrical characteristics of the templates. We have developed template-based nanostructuring techniques using anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) nanopore arrays and polystyrene spheres with scalable, parallel and fast processes.^[1] Employing these techniques, three-dimensional and surface nanostructures have been fabricated. The obtained nanostructures possess large-scale arrayed configuration, high structural density, perfect regularity and cost-effectiveness, and are highly desirable for constructing energy conversion and storage devices, including solar water splitting,^[2-6] supercapacitors^[7-9] and rechargeable sodium-ion batteries.^[10-13] The device performances demonstrated that the obtained nanostructures benefit these applications through the precise control over the structural features enabled by the geometrical characteristics of the templates.^[14,15] These achievements indicate the high potential and importance of template-based nanostructuring techniques for both basic research and device applications. Especially, we proposed recently a multiple nanostructuring concept using a binary-pore AAO template,^[16] indicating a new perspective of template-based nanostructuring for device functionalization.