EAGER: Direct Storage of Solar Energy as Electricity

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1408751ZhouAn abundant supply of clean and affordable energy is vital to the economic growth, quality of life, and security of the United States. There are two aspects of the energy problem. World demand for energy is projected to more than double by 2050 (from 13 to 30 terawatts) and more than triple by the end of the century. The increasing demand will create fierce worldwide competition for the gradually depleting fossil fuel reserves, putting in danger our quality of life that depends on a supply of energy at a low cost. On the other hand, increasing greenhouse emission is mostly likely linked to global warming. Indeed, the concentration of CO2 - the key contributor to global climate change, in the atmosphere, is at the highest recorded level since records began - and it is set to further increase. The need to simultaneously increase our energy supply while reducing CO2 emissions is one of the major challenges facing our global society today.Future energy sources that can meet these dual requirements include solar, wind, and nuclear energy - all of which can produce electricity as the primary form of energy. Solar power is the only truly renewable resource which can be harnessed in sufficient quantities to seriously impact worldwide energy needs; however storage of solar energy has been a great challenge to tackle. The Intellectual Merit: The focus is to tightly integrate conversion and storage systems into an electrochemical reactor, named "direct solar-to-electricity (DSE) reactor". The concept is to utilize solar energy to activate a liquid redox couple in a continuous mode; as a result, solar energy can be directly stored as electricity in a novel liquid flow battery. The proposed activities engage interdisciplinary areas of electrochemistry, reactor design, organic synthesis and semiconductor physics. The advantages of radical organic compounds for direct storage of solar energy are (1) an extremely high power due to fast reaction kinetics of the organic radicals, (2) ease of organic radicals to be modified to facilitate specific functions and (3) absence of expensive or toxic metal ions in these organic compounds. The concept of direct storage of solar energy as electricity is a "high risk-high pay off" exploratory work in its early stages, but could be transformative. Broader impacts: Specific anticipated broader impacts are as follows: (1) one graduate student will be trained, increasing the pool of experts in the areas of batteries, electrochemistry, and energy/environment; (2) two undergraduate students will be actively recruited and leveraged with the Undergraduate Research Fellowships at USC to build a diverse group that includes women and/or members of underrepresented minority groups; (3) The PI will interact with middle school teachers and students. Middle School has been chosen as the outreaching focus of this project. Through this outreach activity, the PI hopes to spark interest in the scientific and technological field, thereby encouraging students to follow a STEM career into high school and ultimately into college, and (4) Timely research developments on advanced energy systems will be incorporated into the Materials curriculum within the College of Engineering at the University of South Carolina.