Development of Zn/ZnO nanocomposite electrodes via physical vapor deposition for lithium-ion batteries

Lithium ion batteries have revolutionized the rechargeable battery industry with the developing technology. Lithium ion batteries are non-toxic, relatively low cost and superior properties, such as re-usability of the storage period, the most common sources of energy. Nano-crystalline ZnO thin films have a lot of applications such as anode material for Li-ion batteries with high theoretical energy capacity and wide band gap.In this thesis, high purity zinc targets (99,98 %) were deposited on sodium silicate glasses by using thermal evaporation technique in different ambient pressures. The resultant pure zinc films were oxidized under plasma conditions at different oxygen partial pressure in order to produce nano crystalline zinc oxide based layers. The resultant thin films are characterized towards their properties as a function of deposition and oxidation parameters during film growth. The effects of coating pressure, oxygen partial pressure and coating time on the film properties, texture orientation, microstructure, surface roughness, grain size and sheet resistance were studied via X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and 4-point probe resistivity measurement tests.The results were shown that films are produced in zinc rich zinc oxide nano crystalline structure in which has a grain size between 11-17 nm. ZnO is an interesting candidate for the use as in Li ion batteries instead of traditional graphite anode it has a very high theoretical energy capacity.