Energy Materials: Batteries and Photovoltaics

40 lessons, pages 4241–4280.

  1. Energy Materials: Matching Function to Structure — How electronic, ionic and mechanical properties govern batteries and photovoltaics
  2. Comparing Battery and Solar-Cell Energy Flow — Electrochemical storage versus photon-to-electron conversion
  3. Battery Voltage from Chemical Potentials — Connecting electrode composition, free energy and equilibrium cell voltage
  4. Intercalation Hosts and Site Energies — Crystal sites, occupancy and voltage profiles in insertion electrodes
  5. Layered Oxide Cathode Design — Transition-metal redox, oxygen stability and composition trade-offs in layered materials
  6. Olivine and Spinel Cathode Structures — Diffusion topology, phase changes and durability of common insertion frameworks
  7. High-Nickel Cathode Challenges — Capacity gains versus surface reactivity, cracking and thermal stability
  8. Lithium-Rich and Anionic-Redox Cathodes — Oxygen charge compensation, hysteresis and voltage fade
  9. Graphite and Hard-Carbon Anodes — Staging, sodium storage and potential-dependent interfacial chemistry
  10. Silicon and Alloying Anodes — Capacity, volume expansion and electrode architecture
  11. Lithium-Metal Anodes — Plating morphology, interfacial stability and short-circuit risk
  12. Liquid Electrolyte Solvation — Salt–solvent coordination, ionic conductivity and transport numbers
  13. Solid Electrolyte Families — Oxide, sulfide and polymer conductors with different mechanical and chemical limits
  14. Solid–Solid Battery Interfaces — Contact loss, space-charge concepts and chemical compatibility
  15. SEI and Cathode Interphase Design — Passivation chemistry, additives and cycle-dependent interface evolution
  16. Diffusion in Active Electrode Particles — Chemical diffusivity, concentration gradients and particle-size effects
  17. Porous Electrode Architecture — Thickness, tortuosity, electronic networks and usable energy at practical rates
  18. Battery Capacity and Energy Metrics — Specific versus areal capacity, operating voltage and full-cell accounting
  19. Battery Power and Rate Performance — Kinetic, ionic and electronic losses under load
  20. Battery Degradation Diagnosis — Separating lithium-inventory loss, active-material loss and impedance growth
  21. Battery Safety and Thermal Stability — Reaction cascades, heat generation and materials-level mitigation
  22. Sodium-Ion Battery Materials — Sodium host structures, hard carbon and supply-chain trade-offs
  23. Lithium–Sulfur Material Challenges — Polysulfide shuttle, sulfur utilization and lithium-metal compatibility
  24. Photovoltaic Absorption and Band Gaps — Photon energies, absorption edges and semiconductor selection
  25. Band Alignment at Solar-Cell Interfaces — Electron and hole extraction, contact energetics and interfacial dipoles
  26. Electron–Hole Generation and Separation — Excitation, carrier diffusion and the role of built-in fields
  27. Recombination Pathways — Radiative, defect-assisted and interface recombination losses
  28. Current–Voltage Curves of Solar Cells — Open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, fill factor and efficiency
  29. The Shockley–Queisser Limit — Ideal single-junction constraints from spectral and recombination losses
  30. Silicon Solar-Cell Materials — Crystal quality, doping, passivation and contact design
  31. Thin-Film Photovoltaic Absorbers — CdTe and CIGS material features, defects and processing trade-offs
  32. Halide Perovskite Solar Cells — Crystal chemistry, defect tolerance, ion migration and stability
  33. Organic Photovoltaic Materials — Excitons, donor–acceptor blends and charge collection
  34. Tandem Solar Cells — Stacking absorber band gaps to reduce single-junction losses
  35. Photovoltaic Degradation — Moisture, heat, oxygen, ultraviolet light and metastable defects
  36. Characterizing Energy Materials — Diffraction, spectroscopy, electrochemistry and microscopy as complementary evidence
  37. Operando Measurements — Watching structural and chemical changes during cycling or illumination
  38. Materials Screening and Scale-Up — Reproducible synthesis, abundance, manufacturing yield and performance validation
  39. Sustainability of Energy Materials — Resource demand, lifetime, recycling and life-cycle boundaries
  40. Energy Materials: Unit Review — Connecting composition, interfaces, transport, degradation and device metrics