Porosimetry of mesoporous MoO3 via environmental ellipsometry

ANYL 469

R. Alan May, ramay@mail.utexas.edu, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas Austin, 1 University Station A5300, Austin, TX 78712-1065, Austin, TX 78741 and Keith J. Stevenson, stevenson@cm.utexas.edu, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, Mail Code #A5300, Austin, TX 78712.
Knowledge of the nature of a materials porous network is intimately linked to its performance as in host of applications including separations and energy storage. In particular, we are interested in studying mesoporous redox-active metal oxides as ion insertion hosts used as cathodes in lithium ion batteries. The porosity is an important parameter that influences performance parameters such as ion storage capacity, reversibility, and stability. In effort to characterize the porous network of mesoporous metal oxides we have developed a spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) technique to assess not only the thickness and refractive index but also the pore size, pore distribution, and pore volume. We will detail our work on mesoporous MoO3 thin films with templated porosity and the results related to electrochemically derived parameters such as diffusion coefficient and capacity during Li+ intercalation.

 

Analytical Approaches
1:30 PM-4:30 PM, Thursday, August 23, 2007 BCEC -- 104A, Oral

Division of Analytical Chemistry

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007