Additive Manufacturing and High-throughput Processing of Sustainable Energy Materials

The imperative for carbon-neutral and efficient energy generation and management stands at the forefront of our pursuit of sustainability. A significant portion of the energy produced globally is not harnessed but rather lost as waste heat. Capitalizing on this untapped potential through energy recovery and regeneration technologies presents a promising avenue for enhancing overall energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. This dissertation investigates two distinct categories of green and sustainable energy materials, delving into their manufacturing and applications in energy storage and recovery. To facilitate efficient waste heat recovery, thermoelectric devices utilize temperature gradient to produce electricity without any moving parts or complex setups. In the pursuit of efficient energy generation through thermoelectric devices, the dimensionless figure of merit (zT) stands as the quintessential parameter for advancement. It is imperative that thermoelectric materials undergo enhancements not only in elevating zT values but also in the development of scalable and economically viable manufacturing processes to enable efficient and cost-effective energy recovery. This study addresses this issue by designing thermoelectric alloys and composites in a high throughput, low cost, and facile manufacturing pathway while maintaining superior thermoelectric performance. As proof of concept, p-type bismuth antimony telluride and n-type silver selenide materials are investigated using advanced manufacturing processes involving ink-based deposition and printing, pulsed light-assisted flash synthesis and sintering, as well as comprehensive characterizations of thermoelectric transport properties. In addition to thermoelectric materials, this dissertation also studied pulsed light flash synthesis of high entropy nanocatalysts. Hydrogen-based fuel cell technology has been employed as energy storage in diverse applications. The electrocatalytic water splitting can enable energy-efficient inexpensive hydrogen production. However, this reaction depends on noble metal-based expensive catalysts which limit the process for large-scale industrial adoption. On that front, the high entropy-based nanocatalysts have great potential to transform the manufacturing landscape, however still unexplored due to manufacturing constraints. This study develops a novel pathway for synthesizing high entropy oxide-based nanocatalysts in a high-throughput manner to reduce cost, production time, and manufacturing complexity. This study has innovated high-throughput manufacturing processes of thermoelectric and catalyst materials. The innovative materials processing and fabrication methods utilized in this study can also be generalizable for a broad range of energy and electronic materials and devices.