Scalable Nanomanufacturing of Hierarchical Inorganic-Polymer Hybrid Electrodes for Next Generation High-Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries

以可承受的成本开发具有高能量和功率密度以及长循环寿命的电化学能量存储装置仍然是一个主要的科学和技术挑战，涉及全新电极和电解质材料的基本化学和性质以及它们的可扩展制造以实现成本效益。该奖项旨在探索新型高能电池电极的可扩展制造，该电极将功能性纳米结构聚合物与超高容量无机颗粒结合起来，用于高性能的下一代锂离子电池。该奖项的研究将提供对混合无机-有机材料的化学和电化学性质的更好的基本理解，并显着推进对我们社会的可再生能源未来至关重要的下一代储能系统。此外，获得的基础知识和制造策略将有助于设计其他电化学设备和系统，如燃料电池，光电化学电池和电化学传感器。教育和推广目标是将以可再生能源为中心的研究工作和成果与研究生，本科生和K-12教育紧密结合，并在全球范围内传播研究和教育成果。该项目中的综合研究和教育将促进学生积极学习和对可持续能源研究和未来工程职业的兴奋，并增加与可持续能源相关的教育和劳动力发展方面急需的努力。迫切需要开发具有高容量、低成本、长循环寿命和大规模生产能力的新型电极材料的新方法，以便显著推进向高能量/功率密度下一代能量存储系统的进展。该项目的重点是合理设计和可扩展的基于溶液的合成和新型分层电池电极系统的设备制造，该系统将纳米结构导电聚合物与无机颗粒协同整合，以解决超高容量无机电极材料所面临的根本挑战。这些方法集中在（i）具有可调结构的分级无机聚合物电极（HIPE）的设计和可扩展合成，以大大增强能量存储能力，（ii）理解它们的电子和电化学性质，以及研究关键设计问题，包括可扩展性和可制造性，以及（iii）通过微观表征和机械模拟对纳米级混合界面处的电化学动力学进行基础研究。 这项研究旨在从科学和工程角度出发，为下一代锂电池技术建立一类新的混合电池电极系统。预期的结果将提高在分子水平上优化这些新型材料的电化学性能的结构设计的知识，并提供在纳米级混合无机-有机界面的电化学动力学更深入的了解。学术研究人员与国家实验室和技术公司的合作将有助于将这一基础研究集中在实际问题上，并加速纳米制造的规模扩大。

Developing electrochemical energy storage devices with high energy and power densities as well as long cycle life at an affordable cost still remains a major scientific and technological challenge involving the fundamental chemistry and properties of radically new electrode and electrolyte materials and their scalable manufacturing for cost effectiveness. This award explores the scalable manufacturing of a new class of high-energy battery electrodes that incorporate functional nanostructured polymers with ultrahigh-capacity inorganic particles for high performing next generation lithium-ion batteries. This award research will provide a better fundamental understanding of chemical and electrochemical properties of hybrid inorganic-organic materials, and significantly advance the next generation of energy storage systems that are crucial to the renewable energy future of our society. Moreover, fundamental knowledge and manufacturing strategy gained will be useful for designing other electrochemical devices and systems such as fuel cells, photoelectrochemical cells, and electrochemical sensors. The education and outreach objective is to tightly integrate the renewable energy-centered research efforts and results with graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 education and to globally disseminate both research and education outcomes. The integrated research and education in this project will promote students, active learning and their excitement for sustainable energy research and future engineering career, and increase critically-needed efforts in education and workforce development related to sustainable energy. New approaches towards the development of novel electrode materials with high capacity, low-cost, long cycle life and the ability to be produced at large scale, are critically needed in order to significantly advance the progress towards high energy/power density next-generation energy storage systems. This project focuses on rational design and scalable solution-based synthesis and device fabrication of a novel hierarchical battery electrode system that synergistically integrate nanostructured conductive polymers with inorganic particles to address fundamental challenges faced by ultrahigh-capacity inorganic electrode materials. The approaches are focused on (i) design and scalable synthesis of hierarchical inorganic-polymer electrodes (HIPE) with tunable structures for greatly enhanced energy storage capabilities, (ii) understanding their electronic and electrochemical properties, as well as studying the critical design issues including scalability and manufacturability, and (iii) fundamental investigation of electrochemical dynamics at the nanoscale hybrid interface through microscopic characterizations and mechanistic simulations. This research aimed from both scientific and engineering perspective will establish a new class of hybrid battery electrode systems for next-generation lithium battery technologies. The expected results will improve the knowledge of structural design at the molecular level for optimized electrochemical properties of these novel materials, and provide a deeper understanding of electrochemical dynamics at the nanoscale hybrid inorganic-organic interface. The partnership of academic researchers with national laboratory and technology company will help focus this fundamental research on practical issues and accelerate the nanomanufacturing scale-up.