Engineering of surfaces for energy-related applications

Finding solutions to today's energy challenges will be spearheaded by the development of novel materials systems. This dissertation examines the engineering of surfaces for both energy collection and energy storage. Energy collection research, such as the development of more efficient photovoltaic devices, has received much attention in recent literature, however, achieving inexpensive efficiency improvements in other parts of the photovoltaic system has not been well documented. The first part of this dissertation examines the possibility of utilizing a sol-gel approach to fabricate a single-layer abrasion-resistant antireflective coating for cover glass for solar cell arrays. By controlling the porosity of the film to reduce reflection from the substrate, and by controlling the chemistry of the sol-gel formation, we have achieved a film that is both durable and exhibits excellent antireflection properties.The second part of this dissertation examines a novel approach to the protection of lithium metal for use in secondary batteries. Current lithium-ion technologies utilize carbon anodes which have a low energy density compared to lithium metal. However, the interaction between lithium metal and commercially available non-aqueous electrolytes produces an inhomogeneous layer on the surface of the lithium which results in poor cycle life. A novel coating is presented which uses sol-gel precursors to stabilize the surface of lithium metal and results in a film that protects a lithium metal surface for over 100 cycles of stripping and plating.