Emery Brown
Graduate Student
Department of Chemistry
Kansas State University
Email:[email protected]
Phone: (816)-810-7640
Education Background
Sept. 2008 – May 2012 B.S. in Chemistry and Biology at Truman State University
Sept. 2012 – Present PhD Student at Kansas State University
Graduate Student
Department of Chemistry
Kansas State University
Email:[email protected]
Phone: (816)-810-7640
Education Background
Sept. 2008 – May 2012 B.S. in Chemistry and Biology at Truman State University
Sept. 2012 – Present PhD Student at Kansas State University
Current Research Interest
Electrical energy storage,
Nano materials
3-D energy storage devices
Electrochemical capacitors
Solid-state electrostatic capacitors
Lithium ion batteries
Current Research
The drive for advancement in renewable energy storage stems from both the depletion of fossil fuels as well as the onset of new and innovated technologies. Arguably the greatest challenge in today’s society is the convergence from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The use of renewable energy source such as wind, solar, and geo thermal has been rapidly increasing. However, producing renewable energy is one side of the equation; other involves the storage and delivery. New and innovated technologies have also become dependent on renewable energy storage. For the past several decades technologies have gotten more powerful while on a much smaller scale. The need to fabricate small efficient energy storage at variable delivery rates is crucial for the advancement in these technologies. Common types of electrical energy storage devices include fuel cells, batteries, supercapacitors, and capacitors. Capacitors (specifically linear dielectric capacitors) are known for their high specific power rates, but unfortunately deliver very low amounts of energy (specific energy) due to surface charge storage only. Batteries on the other hand deliver large amounts of energy but at a very slow rate due to kinetic limitations according to the Ragone plot. One of the major aims we strive for in the electric energy storage research is to design an electrical energy storage device that has the energy output of batteries coupled with the high rate of traditional capacitors.
Lithium Ion Battery
Vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNF) grown via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition are used as 3-D architecture arrays for lithium ion battery components. Various metal oxides materials such as LiCoO2 are deposited on the fibers and used as a cathode material. Previous work involves the use of Si and TiO2 on VACNF’s as anode materials. Full cell studies are currently underway. Side projects involve hydrothermal and waterbath processes to synthesis graphene oxide/V2O5 composites to be used as a cathode material for Li ion batteries.
Solid-State Electrostatic Capacitors
VACNFs were conformally coated with Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) using atomic layer deposition in order to construct a three-dimensional array of metal-insulator-metal, core-shell nanostructures. The conformal core-shell AZO/Al2O3/VACNF array structure demonstrates a promising 3D-architecture toward applications of solid-state capacitors with large surface area as well as a thin and leak-free dielectric. Future work involves the deposition of other high dielectric metal oxide materials for enhanced energy storage capabilities.
High energy storage in relaxor-ferroelectric devices
The energy storage properties of Pb0.92La0.08Zr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PLZT) films grown via pulse laser deposition were evaluated at variable film thickness of 125, 250, 500, and 1000 nm. Cyclic I-V measurements were used to evaluate the dielectric properties of these thin films to provide not only the total electric displacement, but also separates contributions from each of the relevant components including electric conductivity, dielectric capacitance, and relaxor-ferroelectric domain switching polarization. As the film thickness increases, PLZT transits from a linear dielectric to nonlinear relaxor-ferroelectric energy storage behavior. The PLZT films can be optimized for different energy storage applications by tuning the film thickness to optimize between the linear and nonlinear dielectric properties and energy storage efficiency. Future work on temperature dependence and the study of larger film thickness will be used to further optimize this material system for solid-state energy storage systems.
Electrochemical Capacitors
Several projects have involved the construction of electrochemical capacitors. The first project involves the use of “Detonated graphene” produced through a detonation process of oxygen and acetylene in a homebuilt detonation vessel by Arjun Nepal in the Chris Sorensen group at Kansas State University. The produced graphene product is then treated in several different ways and used as an electrode material for an electrochemical capacitor. The material can be formed into pellets are casted as a thin layer on to a conducting substrate. A Swagelok apparatus is used in a two electrode setup to bring the electrodes close together with a highly conductive aqueous electrolyte between them. Future work involves the addition of metal oxides or conducting polymers to serve as composite electrodes for pseudocapacitive materials. The second project involves hydrothermal and waterbath processes of graphene oxide/V2O5 nanoparticles to be used as a pseudocapacitive material.
Publications
1. Chunrui Ma, Gong Youpin., Rongtao Lu, Emery Brown, Beihai Ma, Jun Li, Judy Wu, Detangling Extrinsic and Intrinsic Hysteresis for Detecting Dynamic Switch of Electric Dipoles using Graphene Field-Effect Transistors on Ferroelectric Gates. ACS Nano 2015 (Submitted)
2. Emery Brown, Chunrui Ma, Jagaran Acharya, Beihai Ma, Judy Wu, Jun Li, Controlling Dielectric and Relaxor-Ferroelectric Properties for Energy Storage by Tuning Pb0.92La0.08Zr0.52Ti0.48O3 Film Thickness. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2014, 6, 22417−22422.
3. Xunfu Zhou, Weijian Liu, Xiaoyuan Yu, Yingju Liu, Yueping Fang, Steven Klankowski, Yiqun Yang, Emery Brown and Jun Li, Tin Dioxide@Carbon Core−Shell Nanoarchitectures Anchored on Wrinkled Graphene for Ultrafast and Stable Lithium Storage. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2014, 6, 7434−7443
4. Gary A. Malek, Emery Brown, Steven A. Klankowski, Jianwei Liu, Alan J. Elliot, Rongtao Lu, Jun Li, Judy Wu, Atomic Layer Deposition of Al-Doped ZnO/Al2O3 Double Layers on Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofiber Arrays. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2014, 6 (9), 6865–6871
5. Emery Brown, Russell G. Baughman, N-Ethyl-6-ethylamino-4-oxo-1,3,5-triazin-2-aminium chloride (Oxysimazine-HCl). Acta Crystallographica Section E 2010, 66 (10), 2481
6. Emery Brown, Russell G. Baughman, 2-Methyl-4,4-dioxo-N-phenyl-5,6-di-hydro-1,4-oxathiine-3-carboxamide(Oxycarboxin). Acta Crystallographica Section E 2010, 66 (10), 265
Past Research
May 2008 – Aug 2008 Solved crystal structures of various pesticides in the solid state form using x-ray crystallography under Dr. Russell Baughman in the Next Step Program at Truman State University.
May 2009 – Aug 2009 Developed and validated a method for the atomic absorption determination of mercury in freshwater fish using a home-built cold vapor generator and microwave digestion under Dr. David McCurdy at Truman State University.
May 2010 – Aug 2010 Helped develop the Uniform Federal Policy Quality Assurance Project Plan Template for Soils Assessment of Dioxin Sites for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington D.C. under Stephen Dyment
May 2012 – Aug 2012 Optimized the synthesis of CdTe quantum dots (QDs) for thin film photovoltaics under Dr. Viktor Chikan at Kansas State University.
Conferences and Presentations
Poster presentation at the 43rd Midwest Regional ACS Conference on September 9, 2008 in Kearny, Nebraska. Crystal and 3-Dimensional Molecular Structures of Pesticides
Poster presentation at the spring 2009 Student Research Conference at Truman State University. Crystal and Molecular Structures of Pesticides
Poster presentation at the 44th Midwest Regional ACS Conference on October 22, 2009 in Iowa City, Iowa. Atomic Absorption Determination of Mercury in Local Freshwater Fish Using a Home-Built Cold Vapor Generator
Oral presentations at the 24th National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in Missoula, Montana on April 16, 2010 Atomic Absorption Determination of Mercury in Local Freshwater Fish Using a Home-Built Cold Vapor Generator
Oral presentation at the spring 2010 Student Research Conference at Truman State University. Atomic Absorption Determination of Mercury in Local Freshwater Fish Using a Home-Built Cold Vapor Generator
Attended the 2010, 2011, and 2012 Pittsburg Conferences and Expos (Pittcon) in Orlando, FL (2010 and 2012) and Atlanta, GA (2011).
Poster presentation at the EPSCOR meeting in Lawrence Kansas on October 6, 2013. Carbon Electrode Materials for Electrochemical Capacitors
Extra Circular Activities
Advisor of the Alpha Chi Sigma fraternity-Beta Rho Chapter (Fall 2013-Present)
Treasure of the Phi Lambda Upsilon fraternity-Alpha Epsilon (Spring 2014-Present)
Solar cell and fuel cell powered demo shows for K-8. Jun Li group (Spring 2013-Present)
President (MA) of Alpha Chi Sigma-Gamma Theta Chapter (Spring 2012)
Secretary for the Society for Applied Spectroscopy-local student chapter (TSU)
Risk Management and Ways and Means Chair of Sigma Phi Epsilon-Missouri Mu Chapter
Electrical energy storage,
Nano materials
3-D energy storage devices
Electrochemical capacitors
Solid-state electrostatic capacitors
Lithium ion batteries
Current Research
The drive for advancement in renewable energy storage stems from both the depletion of fossil fuels as well as the onset of new and innovated technologies. Arguably the greatest challenge in today’s society is the convergence from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The use of renewable energy source such as wind, solar, and geo thermal has been rapidly increasing. However, producing renewable energy is one side of the equation; other involves the storage and delivery. New and innovated technologies have also become dependent on renewable energy storage. For the past several decades technologies have gotten more powerful while on a much smaller scale. The need to fabricate small efficient energy storage at variable delivery rates is crucial for the advancement in these technologies. Common types of electrical energy storage devices include fuel cells, batteries, supercapacitors, and capacitors. Capacitors (specifically linear dielectric capacitors) are known for their high specific power rates, but unfortunately deliver very low amounts of energy (specific energy) due to surface charge storage only. Batteries on the other hand deliver large amounts of energy but at a very slow rate due to kinetic limitations according to the Ragone plot. One of the major aims we strive for in the electric energy storage research is to design an electrical energy storage device that has the energy output of batteries coupled with the high rate of traditional capacitors.
Lithium Ion Battery
Vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNF) grown via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition are used as 3-D architecture arrays for lithium ion battery components. Various metal oxides materials such as LiCoO2 are deposited on the fibers and used as a cathode material. Previous work involves the use of Si and TiO2 on VACNF’s as anode materials. Full cell studies are currently underway. Side projects involve hydrothermal and waterbath processes to synthesis graphene oxide/V2O5 composites to be used as a cathode material for Li ion batteries.
Solid-State Electrostatic Capacitors
VACNFs were conformally coated with Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) using atomic layer deposition in order to construct a three-dimensional array of metal-insulator-metal, core-shell nanostructures. The conformal core-shell AZO/Al2O3/VACNF array structure demonstrates a promising 3D-architecture toward applications of solid-state capacitors with large surface area as well as a thin and leak-free dielectric. Future work involves the deposition of other high dielectric metal oxide materials for enhanced energy storage capabilities.
High energy storage in relaxor-ferroelectric devices
The energy storage properties of Pb0.92La0.08Zr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PLZT) films grown via pulse laser deposition were evaluated at variable film thickness of 125, 250, 500, and 1000 nm. Cyclic I-V measurements were used to evaluate the dielectric properties of these thin films to provide not only the total electric displacement, but also separates contributions from each of the relevant components including electric conductivity, dielectric capacitance, and relaxor-ferroelectric domain switching polarization. As the film thickness increases, PLZT transits from a linear dielectric to nonlinear relaxor-ferroelectric energy storage behavior. The PLZT films can be optimized for different energy storage applications by tuning the film thickness to optimize between the linear and nonlinear dielectric properties and energy storage efficiency. Future work on temperature dependence and the study of larger film thickness will be used to further optimize this material system for solid-state energy storage systems.
Electrochemical Capacitors
Several projects have involved the construction of electrochemical capacitors. The first project involves the use of “Detonated graphene” produced through a detonation process of oxygen and acetylene in a homebuilt detonation vessel by Arjun Nepal in the Chris Sorensen group at Kansas State University. The produced graphene product is then treated in several different ways and used as an electrode material for an electrochemical capacitor. The material can be formed into pellets are casted as a thin layer on to a conducting substrate. A Swagelok apparatus is used in a two electrode setup to bring the electrodes close together with a highly conductive aqueous electrolyte between them. Future work involves the addition of metal oxides or conducting polymers to serve as composite electrodes for pseudocapacitive materials. The second project involves hydrothermal and waterbath processes of graphene oxide/V2O5 nanoparticles to be used as a pseudocapacitive material.
Publications
1. Chunrui Ma, Gong Youpin., Rongtao Lu, Emery Brown, Beihai Ma, Jun Li, Judy Wu, Detangling Extrinsic and Intrinsic Hysteresis for Detecting Dynamic Switch of Electric Dipoles using Graphene Field-Effect Transistors on Ferroelectric Gates. ACS Nano 2015 (Submitted)
2. Emery Brown, Chunrui Ma, Jagaran Acharya, Beihai Ma, Judy Wu, Jun Li, Controlling Dielectric and Relaxor-Ferroelectric Properties for Energy Storage by Tuning Pb0.92La0.08Zr0.52Ti0.48O3 Film Thickness. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2014, 6, 22417−22422.
3. Xunfu Zhou, Weijian Liu, Xiaoyuan Yu, Yingju Liu, Yueping Fang, Steven Klankowski, Yiqun Yang, Emery Brown and Jun Li, Tin Dioxide@Carbon Core−Shell Nanoarchitectures Anchored on Wrinkled Graphene for Ultrafast and Stable Lithium Storage. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2014, 6, 7434−7443
4. Gary A. Malek, Emery Brown, Steven A. Klankowski, Jianwei Liu, Alan J. Elliot, Rongtao Lu, Jun Li, Judy Wu, Atomic Layer Deposition of Al-Doped ZnO/Al2O3 Double Layers on Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofiber Arrays. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2014, 6 (9), 6865–6871
5. Emery Brown, Russell G. Baughman, N-Ethyl-6-ethylamino-4-oxo-1,3,5-triazin-2-aminium chloride (Oxysimazine-HCl). Acta Crystallographica Section E 2010, 66 (10), 2481
6. Emery Brown, Russell G. Baughman, 2-Methyl-4,4-dioxo-N-phenyl-5,6-di-hydro-1,4-oxathiine-3-carboxamide(Oxycarboxin). Acta Crystallographica Section E 2010, 66 (10), 265
Past Research
May 2008 – Aug 2008 Solved crystal structures of various pesticides in the solid state form using x-ray crystallography under Dr. Russell Baughman in the Next Step Program at Truman State University.
May 2009 – Aug 2009 Developed and validated a method for the atomic absorption determination of mercury in freshwater fish using a home-built cold vapor generator and microwave digestion under Dr. David McCurdy at Truman State University.
May 2010 – Aug 2010 Helped develop the Uniform Federal Policy Quality Assurance Project Plan Template for Soils Assessment of Dioxin Sites for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington D.C. under Stephen Dyment
May 2012 – Aug 2012 Optimized the synthesis of CdTe quantum dots (QDs) for thin film photovoltaics under Dr. Viktor Chikan at Kansas State University.
Conferences and Presentations
Poster presentation at the 43rd Midwest Regional ACS Conference on September 9, 2008 in Kearny, Nebraska. Crystal and 3-Dimensional Molecular Structures of Pesticides
Poster presentation at the spring 2009 Student Research Conference at Truman State University. Crystal and Molecular Structures of Pesticides
Poster presentation at the 44th Midwest Regional ACS Conference on October 22, 2009 in Iowa City, Iowa. Atomic Absorption Determination of Mercury in Local Freshwater Fish Using a Home-Built Cold Vapor Generator
Oral presentations at the 24th National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in Missoula, Montana on April 16, 2010 Atomic Absorption Determination of Mercury in Local Freshwater Fish Using a Home-Built Cold Vapor Generator
Oral presentation at the spring 2010 Student Research Conference at Truman State University. Atomic Absorption Determination of Mercury in Local Freshwater Fish Using a Home-Built Cold Vapor Generator
Attended the 2010, 2011, and 2012 Pittsburg Conferences and Expos (Pittcon) in Orlando, FL (2010 and 2012) and Atlanta, GA (2011).
Poster presentation at the EPSCOR meeting in Lawrence Kansas on October 6, 2013. Carbon Electrode Materials for Electrochemical Capacitors
Extra Circular Activities
Advisor of the Alpha Chi Sigma fraternity-Beta Rho Chapter (Fall 2013-Present)
Treasure of the Phi Lambda Upsilon fraternity-Alpha Epsilon (Spring 2014-Present)
Solar cell and fuel cell powered demo shows for K-8. Jun Li group (Spring 2013-Present)
President (MA) of Alpha Chi Sigma-Gamma Theta Chapter (Spring 2012)
Secretary for the Society for Applied Spectroscopy-local student chapter (TSU)
Risk Management and Ways and Means Chair of Sigma Phi Epsilon-Missouri Mu Chapter