CAREER: Carbon Anodes in Potassium-Ion Batteries

社会的持续繁荣依赖于充足的能源供应和高效的能源储存所带来的能源安全。固定储能是间歇性可再生能源的关键推动因素，包括太阳能和风能。固定应用的性质要求存储技术具有低成本，长周期寿命以及最重要的可扩展性和可持续性。虽然锂离子电池在电子和电动汽车市场上占据主导地位，但锂通常过于昂贵，无法用于固定应用。这需要基于钠和钾等地球丰富元素的替代技术。迄今为止，注意力集中在钠离子电池上。为了拓宽这一领域，PI已经表明，一系列广泛的碳材料可以可逆地存储钾离子，并具有很好的储能应用性能。本项目将确定使用钾离子化学的碳阳极的设计原则。在教育方面，该项目将通过开发一个新的科学之旅计划，为俄勒冈州农村学校服务不足的学生带来最先进的储能知识。这将最终扩大到包括其他俄勒冈州立大学的教师。这项新计划将使大量无法参加大学校园活动的学生受益。此外，该项目将把高中生和本科生的培训纳入研究计划，以加速校园内的发现。该CAREER奖项的技术目标是通过确定钾离子电池的结构-性能关系来阐明碳阳极的设计原理。PI计划开展以下活动：（1）通过先进的原位和非原位表征，研究K离子插入过程中不断变化的结构和动力学性质，确定负责大块碳电极中K离子储存的功能亚结构;（2）通过创建具有纳米和原子尺度控制特征的新碳结构，确定结构-性质相关性;以及（3）发展和推广能源科学活动，为服务不足的学生带来STEM灵感。该项目将测试块状碳阳极在室温下不能可逆地电化学储存钾的假设。此外，该项目将使用钾离子电池作为平台，以产生有关非石墨碳阳极中负责金属离子存储的子结构的知识。这个问题将通过利用插入大的钾离子所产生的碳电极的结构畸变来解决，这可以揭示非石墨碳的结构特性的宝贵信息，其分辨率为纳米和原子尺度。为了观察结构变形，该项目将采用中子散射、原位TEM和电化学滴定技术。此外，该项目将利用PI在合理设计碳局部结构方面的能力，以揭示子结构对电化学性能的影响。在原子尺度上对碳结构的密切观察和微调的独特结合将产生对碳阳极结构-性能关系的基本理解。这将导致阐明新的设计原则的碳材料的金属离子电池。这项研究可能会引起电池界的范式转变，同时开创了理解和设计用于各种目的的碳的新领域。

CAREER 1551693 - JiThe ongoing prosperity of society relies on energy security enabled by sufficient energy supply and efficient energy storage. Stationary energy storage is the key enabler for intermittent renewable energy resources, including solar and wind. The nature of stationary applications requires the storage technologies to have low cost, long cycle life and most importantly scalability and sustainability. Although lithium-ion batteries have dominated the market in electronics and electric vehicles, lithium is generally too expensive to be used in stationary applications. This calls for alternative technologies based on earth-abundant elements, such as sodium and potassium. To date, attention has focused on sodium-ion batteries. To broaden the field, the PI has shown that a broad array of carbon materials can reversibly store potassium ions with promising performance for energy storage applications. This project will determine design principles for carbon anodes using potassium ion chemistry. On the educational side, the project will bring state-of-the-art knowledge of energy storage to underserved students in Oregon rural schools by developing a new Science-Tour program. This will be eventually expanded to include other OSU faculty. This new program will benefit a large number of students who do not have access to on campus activities at a university. Additionally, the project will integrate training of high school and undergraduate students into the research program to accelerate discoveries on campus.The technical goal of this CAREER award is to elucidate design principles for carbon anodes by determining the structure-property relationships in potassium ion batteries. The PI plans the following activities: (1) Identify the functional substructures that are responsible for K-ion storage in bulk carbon electrodes by investigating the evolving structural and kinetic properties during K-ion insertion via advanced in situ and ex situ characterizations; (2) Determine the structure-property correlation by creating new carbon structures with features controlled at nanometer and atomic scales; and (3) Develop and disseminate energy science activities to bring STEM inspiration to underserved students. This project will test the assumption that bulk carbon anodes cannot reversibly store potassium electrochemically at room temperature. Furthermore, this project will use potassium ion batteries as a platform to generate knowledge on the substructures in non-graphitic carbon anodes that are responsible for metal ion storage. This question will be addressed by exploiting the structural distortion of carbon electrodes generated by insertion of large potassium ions, which can reveal invaluable information of structural properties of non-graphitic carbons with a resolution at nanometer and atomic scales. To observe structural distortion, the project will employ neutron scattering, in situ TEM and electrochemical titration techniques. In addition, the project will draw upon the demonstrated capability of the PI on rational design of carbon local structures to reveal the impact of substructures on electrochemical performance. The unique combination of close observation and fine-tuning of carbon structures at an atomic scale will generate fundamental understanding of the structure-property relationships for carbon anodes. This will lead to elucidation of new design principles for carbon materials for metal-ion batteries. The research may cause a paradigm shift for the battery community, while initiating a new frontier on understanding and designing carbons for various purposes.