DMREF: Collaborative Research: Development of Design Rules for High Hydroxide Transport in Polymer Architectures

在这个由化学系设计材料革新和设计我们的未来(DMREF)计划资助的项目中，纽约大学的Mark Tuckerman教授、伦斯勒理工学院的Chulung Bae教授、宾夕法尼亚州立大学的Michael Hickner教授和田纳西大学的Stephen Paddison教授正在设计、合成和测试用于碱性燃料电池的新材料，并发现一套在未来燃料电池应用材料开发中的最佳实践规则。随着美国寻求通过确定和开发清洁能源来加强其能源安全，需要利用一系列技术来确保可持续的能源供应。电化学设备是这一技术组合的重要组成部分，其中，燃料电池构成了一些最清洁和最可持续的技术。利用燃料电池潜力(以及各种其他电化学技术)的几个关键障碍仍有待克服。研究小组将重点放在阴离子交换膜燃料电池上，这种电池比其他类型的燃料电池具有不需要贵金属，并且可以在低温下与多种燃料一起运行的优势。该项目采用了一种连贯的策略，包括对特定材料成分进行数学和计算机建模，进而指导新材料的合成、这些材料在实际燃料电池中的表征和测试，以及确定管理这一领域未来材料工程的最佳设计原则。该项目还在材料科学和工程的理论和实验方面为本科生和研究生研究人员提供教育和培训，从而确保下一代STEM研究人员的能力和创造力。了解和设计用于离子导电膜的高性价比和可靠的聚合物结构是新兴的电化学设备技术面临的重要挑战。由于氟聚合物的高成本和环境问题，目前可用的质子交换膜是有问题的，而且在非理想条件下性能往往很差。质子交换膜燃料电池应用中的其他挑战包括由于电渗透造成的水管理困难、高燃料交叉以及对昂贵的铂催化剂的要求。基于阴离子交换膜的燃料电池有可能缓解大多数这些问题。然而，尽管液体电解液碱性燃料电池是最早开发的燃料电池之一，但目前关于如何最好地设计这些材料的系统知识很少。研究小组正在应用一种集成的、迭代的理论-实验方法来进行有针对性的聚合物合成、特定聚合物化学的第一原理计算机模拟、结构/形态的数学和实验表征以及远程氢氧化物离子传输的测量和计算建模。通过这种团结一致的努力，研究团队的目标是推进燃料电池膜领域的基础科学和工程知识，并推导出一套阴离子交换膜的基本设计原则，以加快从概念到生产实用材料的时间。

In this project funded by the Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) Program of the Chemistry Division, Professor Mark Tuckerman at New York University, Professor Chulsung Bae at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Professor Michael Hickner of the Pennsylvania State University, and Professor Stephen Paddison of the University of Tennessee are designing, synthesizing, and testing new materials for use in alkaline fuel cells and discovering a set of rules for best practices in the development of future materials for fuel cell applications. As the United States seeks to enhance its energy security through identification and development of clean energy sources a range of technologies need to be leveraged in order to secure a sustainable energy supply. Electrochemical devices are an important part of this mix of technologies, and among these, fuel cells constitute some of the cleanest and most sustainable technologies. Several key hurdles to harnessing the potential of fuel cells (as well as various other electrochemical technologies) remain to be surmounted. The team of investigators are focusing on anion exchange membrane fuel cells that have advantages over other types of fuel cells in not requiring precious metals and being operable with a variety of fuels at low temperature. The project is employing a cohesive strategy involving mathematical and computer modeling of specific materials components that may, in turn, guide the synthesis of new materials, the characterization and testing of these materials in actual fuel cells, and the determination of optimal design principles to govern future materials engineering in this area. The project is also providing education and training for graduate and post-graduate researchers in both theoretical and experimental aspects of materials science and engineering, thus ensuring the competence and creativity of the next generation of STEM researchers. The understanding and design of cost-effective and reliable polymer architectures for use as ion-conducting membranes is an important challenge facing emerging electrochemical device technologies. Currently available proton exchange membranes are problematic due to high cost, environmental concerns of fluoroplymers, and often poor performance under nonideal conditions. Additional challenges in proton exchange membranes fuel cell applications include difficult water management due to electro-osmosis, high fuel crossover, and the requirement of expensive platinum catalysts. Fuel cells based on anion exchange membranes have the potential to alleviate most of these problems. However, little systematic knowledge of how best to design these materials exists at present despite the fact that liquid-electrolyte alkaline fuel cells were among the first fuel cells to be developed. The team of researchers is applying an integrated, iterative theoretical-experimental approach towards the targeted syntheses of polymers, the first-principles computer simulations of specific polymer chemistries, the mathematical and experimental characterization of structures/morphologies, and the measurement and computational modeling of long-range hydroxide ion transport. Through this cohesive effort, the team of investigators is aiming to advance fundamental science and engineering knowledge in the area of fuel cells membranes and to deduce a set of fundamental design principles for anion exchange membranes that accelerate the time between concept and production of practically useful materials.