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- All Subjects: Materials
- Creators: Chemical Engineering Program
- Creators: Department of Physics
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Lithium ion batteries are quintessential components of modern life. They are used to power smart devices — phones, tablets, laptops, and are rapidly becoming major elements in the automotive industry. Demand projections for lithium are skyrocketing with production struggling to keep up pace. This drive is due mostly to the rapid adoption of electric vehicles; sales of electric vehicles in 2020 are more than double what they were only a year prior. With such staggering growth it is important to understand how lithium is sourced and what that means for the environment. Will production even be capable of meeting the demand as more industries make use of this valuable element? How will the environmental impact of lithium affect growth? This thesis attempts to answer these questions as the world looks to a decade of rapid growth for lithium ion batteries.
In this project, we aim to fabricate PIN structure-like diodes for radiation detectors using Boron Nitride (BN). This fabrication is done by performing lithography and metal deposition processes on a Cubic Boron Nitride (cBN) of around 200 nm in thickness layer on top of a boron doped diamond substrate. The main goal is to create the most efficient and affordable alpha particle—and ideally neutron—detector in a radiation setting. Thus, making more accessible radiation detectors that can be more easily produced and disposed of, as well as minimizing the size of conventional detectors.