UC Berkeley

The work presented in this thesis aims to emphasize the power of two dimensional (2D) and high surface area material integration into energy harvesting and storage devices by introducing new techniques and devices. The techniques and device architectures are unique and encourage new ways of thinking in experimental condensed matter physics, material growth, and synthesis, while providing new perspectives to science and engineering.

This thesis consists of three parts: Part I introduces two dimensional and high surface area materials. Part II focuses on energy harvesting devices and the demonstration of different solar cell architectures with integration of graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), and graphene aerogel (GA). In Part III, various energy storage device architectures are introduced for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) and lithium air batteries (Li-air) by incorporating different high surface area materials: boron nitride aerogels (BNAG), boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), or graphene aerogels (GA). Additional measurements, supplementary figures, and detailed fabrication methods are discussed in the appendix.