International Research Fellowship Program: Molten Salts and Ionic Plastic Crystalline Materials as Electrolytes for High Energy Lithium Batteries

0202620亨德森国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行三到二十四个月的研究。该计划的奖励为联合研究提供了机会，并利用独特或互补的设施、专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持位于意大利罗马的意大利新技术、能源和环境署（ENEA）的Wesley a . Henderson博士与Stefano Passerini博士开展为期24个月的研究。该项目基于锂/空气电池替代电解质（熔盐和离子塑料晶体材料）的研究和开发。这种材料的发展可以为电池技术的广泛应用提供关键突破（例如，电动汽车，发电设备和电子设备）。与目前使用的锌/空气电池相比，锂/空气电池的比能量可能要高一个数量级，但它们存在锂金属被水腐蚀等问题。这些问题阻碍了它们与传统的高疏水性电解质（如聚环氧乙烷/锂盐）的商业应用。本项目研究的疏水熔盐是解决这一问题的一种潜在方法。ENEA的高级电化学能源部门负责电动汽车的锂可充电电池和聚合物电解质燃料电池项目。

0202620HendersonThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four month research fellowship by Dr. Wesley A. Henderson to work with Dr. Stefano Passerini at the Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment (ENEA) in Rome, Italy.This project is based on the study and development of alternative electrolytes (molten salts and ionic plastic crystalline materials) for lithium/air batteries. The development of such materials could provide critical breakthroughs in battery technology for a wide array of applications (e.g., electrically powered automobiles, power generation equipment, and electronics.). The lithium/air batteries potentially have an order of magnitude higher specific energy than zinc/air batteries, which are used currently, but these suffer from problems such as corrosion of lithium metal with water. These problems have inhibited their commercial use with conventional, highly hydrophobic electrolytes such as poly(ethylene oxide)/lithium salts. The hybrophobic molten salts to be studied in this project represent a potential solution to this problem.ENEA's Advanced Electrochemical Energy Division conducts projects on both lithium rechargeable batteries and polymer electrolyte fuel cells for electric vehicles.