The powder phosphor of £]-LiGaO2¡GCe3+ ¡B£]-LiGaO2¡GEu3+ and £^-LiAlO2 were prepared by using the reagents of Ga2O3 (99.999%), Al2O3 (99.99¢H), Li2CO3 (99.999%), CeO2 (99.98%) and Eu2O3 (99.98%). Cerium and europium doped £]-LiGaO2 respectively and europium doped £^-LiAlO2 phosphors were synthesized by the method of high temperature solid-state reaction. The Ga, Al, Li, Ce and Eu reagents were mixed according to the requisite stoichiometric ratios. The mixture was mixed thoroughly and sintered at requisite temperature in a tube furnace in atmosphere for several hours. Then the products were cooled down to room temperature and ground into powder to get the final product. The phase purity and crystallinity of the as-synthesized, cerium and europium doped £]-LiGaO2 phosphors respectively and europium doped £^-LiAlO2 phosphors, were characterized using x-ray powder diffraction. The particle size and the morphology of the samples were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. Luminescence properties of the £]-LiGaO2 and the £^-LiAlO2 phosphor samples with different cerium doping and europium doping concentrations were studied. The photoluminescence spectra of cerium doped £]-LiGaO2 showed a broad yellow-green light emission range from 450 to 640 nm with the peak at 519 nm. The strongest intensity peak of luminescence was found at 0.5 % cerium doping concentration synthesized at 1000¢J. The photoluminescence spectra of europium doped £]-LiGaO2 and £^-LiAlO2 showed the orange-red light emission range from 588 to 630 nm with the maximum peak at 612 nm. The strongest intensity peaks of luminescence were found respectively at 9 % and 7 % europium doping concentration synthesized at 1000¢J.

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) has great potential for applications on ultraviolet/blue light emitting devices because of high exciton binding energy and low cost. This research use low lattice-mismatched £^-LiAlO2 (LAO) substrate to grow ZnO epitaxial films by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The first part of the present study deals with effect of processing parameters including temperature of Zinc procuser, sample position and growth temperature on ZnO epilayer. High the precuser temperature and long distance between sample and center of CVD furnace resulted in high growth rates. When growth rate was low, (10 0) ZnO (m-ZnO) was obtained and its crystallinity and luminescence property were poor. After increasing the growth rate to a certain extent, the surface of epilayer was flat and the crystallinity was improved. A further increase of growth rate resulted in a mixture of m-ZnO and c-plane in the ZnO epilayer. Based on the first part of study, the second part was focused on examining the effect of a nanosized buffer layer on inhibiting the nucleation of c-plane ZnO. Results showed that the nucleation of c-plane ZnO was indeed inhibited at low growth temperature. Finally, the crystallinity the optical property of the epilayer were improved by introducing a thick and flat buffer layer of ~170 nm in thickness.

A range of inorganic nanoparticles/nanophosphors that act as ultraviolet radiation absorbers were characterised and assessed in this thesis. Iron doped lithium aluminate phosphor was synthesised using a solid state reaction and also by flame spray pyrolysis. The phosphors prepared by different synthesis methods were characterised to identify their crystal structures and morphologies. Downconverting photoluminescent properties of the phosphors both as pure powders and embedded in polypropylene by co-rotating twin screw extrusion are reported. Zinc oxide nanoparticles made by flame spray pyrolysis were also investigated. They were incorporated into polymers by means of three different approaches including co-rotating twin screw extrusion, spin coating and solvent casting. The resulted composite films were explored to understand the distribution of the zinc oxide nanoparticles. The transmittance and ultraviolet absorption of the nanocomposites were studied and are reported herein. Another set of nanophosphors studied were zinc rich luminescent zinc oxides. They were prepared from the zinc oxide nanoparticles by firing them in a reducing atmosphere. The as-prepared nanophosphors manifested good downconverting photoluminescent properties and maintained their functions when embedded into polystyrene by solvent casting. In this thesis a new route of synthesising aluminium doped zinc oxide nanoparticles was also established. This new approach was based on a series of unexpected results within some trials that were attempting to coat a layer of alumina on the zinc oxide nanoparticles. The concentration of the Al3+ in the final product could be adjusted by tailoring the amount of the Al3+ in the reactants during the synthesis procedures. It was also possible to coat various zinc oxide nanostructures with the aluminium doped zinc oxide.

In this thesis, the growth of nonpolar m-plane zinc oxide (ZnO) nano-materials on (100) £^¡VLiAlO2 (LAO) substrates by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process had been studied. The mixture powders of ZnO and graphite are used as the precursor of reaction sources. Ar/O2 are used as the carrier gas and reaction gas source respectively, and the Au thin-film coated on the LAO substrate is the catalyst for the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mode. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to study the influence of the varied growth conditions, such as deposition time, reaction pressure, growth temperature, and the distance between substrates and reaction powder ¡K etc., on the crystal structure, surface morphology, orientation and microstructure characterizations of the ZnO nanostructure. The pure (10-10) m-plane ZnO nano-materials can be obtained at the growth parameters of 830¢XC, 10 torr, 5 minutes, and 50 sccm of Ar/O2. Furthermore, photoluminescence (PL), cathodoluminescence (CL) and Raman spectroscope (Raman) were used to study optical properties and the inner stress of the materials.

Des progrès dans les batteries aux ions lithium sont en cours de développement afin de répondre, entre autres, à la demande croissante des hautes densités d'énergie et de puissance pour le réseau électrique et en particulier pour l'application dans les véhicules électriques. Ces derniers remplacent écologiquement les véhicules à moteur à combustion interne et leurs succès est principalement dû à leur efficacité énergétique supérieure, à leurs faibles coûts d'exploitation et à leur profil respectueux de l'environnement par rapport aux véhicules à essence. Parmi les différents matériaux de cathode, les composés d'intercalation LiNixMnyCo1-x-yO2 (NMC) sont les meilleurs candidats pour des applications dans les batteries aux ions lithium à hautes performances. Des efforts sont en cours pour mettre en oeuvre des matériaux cathodiques à base de NMC riches en nickel pour répondre aux besoins environnementaux et énergétiques. Aussi séduisants soient-ils, ces matériaux de cathode présentent certains inconvénients liés à une forte réactivité, notamment à l'interface avec l'électrolyte. Pour contourner ces problèmes, des modifications de surface sont étudiées comme des solutions accessibles pour protéger le matériau actif et améliorer ses performances. Bien que diverses chimies et stratégies de revêtement soient publiées dans la littérature, notre approche consistant à combiner la synthèse et la modification de surface du matériau actif en une étape est aussi simple qu'efficace. Le présent manuscrit porte sur l’étude de ce composé. Deux méthodes de revêtement de surface ont été étudiées et leur matériau revêtu résultant a été comparé au matériau non revêtu. Après une caractérisation détaillée de ces matériaux, des études électrochimiques ont été menées afin d’évaluer leurs performances. Enfin, notre NMC622 revêtu de LiAlO2 en une seule étape s'est avéré efficace pour contrer la dégradation de la capacité du NMC et pour améliorer la stabilité structurelle des particules, améliorant ainsi leur cycle de vie. / Advances in lithium-ion batteries are being developed in order to meet, among other things, the increasing demand for high energy and power densities for the electric power grid and especially for application in electric vehicles. The latter are a green replacement for internal combustion engine vehicles, and their success is mostly due to their higher energy efficiency, low operating costs and eco-friendliness compared to gasoline-powered vehicles. Among various cathode materials, LiNixMnyCo1-x-yO2 (NMC) intercalation compounds are the best candidates for applications in high performance lithium-ion batteries. Efforts are underway to implement nickel-rich NMC-based cathode materials to meet environmental and energy needs. As appealing as they are, these cathode materials present certain drawbacks associated with high reactivity, especially at the interface with the electrolyte. To circumvent these issues, surface modifications are investigated as accessible solutions to protect the active material and enhance its performance. Although various coating chemistries and strategies are published in the literature, our approach of combining synthesis and surface modification of the active material in a single pot is as simple as it is efficient. The following manuscript will be covering the study of this material. Two methods of surface coating were studied, and their resulting coated material was compared to the uncoated material. After a detailed characterization of these materials, electrochemical studies were carried out to evaluate their performance. Finally, our resulting one pot LiAlO2- coated NMC622 has shown to be effective in counteracting NMC capacity degradation and improving the structural stability of the particles, thereby improving their cycle- life.