Collaborative Research: Designing Soluble Inorganic Nanomaterials for Flowable Energy Storage

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The widespread adoption of renewable energy technologies like solar and wind power depends critically on the ability to store massive quantities of electricity in rechargeable batteries. The purpose of this project is to design a new generation of high performing materials for liquid-phase energy storage systems like redox flow batteries, which are especially suitable for storing electricity on a large scale. Experiments will be undertaken to learn how the molecular properties of soluble, earth-abundant nanomaterials influence their practical performance in liquid-phase battery systems. The continued progress toward a sustainable energy system will only be possible through training of a globally competitive STEM workforce prepared to innovate and deploy new technologies. In pursuit of this goal, the project integrates several activities centered on the training of competitive undergraduate and graduate students. Alongside the research activities, this program includes a new educational effort directed at training undergraduate students to synthesize, test, and critically evaluate liquid-phase battery materials. The project includes the creation of resources for teaching laboratories—encompassing new curricular materials and designs for low-cost experimental hardware—aimed at teaching the core concepts of electrochemical energy storage to students at three different institutions across the mid-Atlantic region.The overarching objective of this collaborative project is to build a framework for the design of soluble inorganic nanomaterials for liquid-phase, flowable electrochemical energy storage (EES). This objective will be addressed through hypothesis-driven studies targeting two families of nanoscale metal oxide assemblies: polyoxometalate clusters and solubilized metal oxide nanoparticles. These charge carriers each feature a high degree of tunability via compositional modifications of their metal oxide cores and solubilizing ligands. This project will probe the overarching hypothesis that control over these molecular characteristics will enable the design of soluble inorganic nanomaterials that exhibit fast electron-transfer kinetics, high solubility, and long-term stability over a wide range of electrochemical potentials. A series of studies focused on targeted synthetic modifications of vanadium- and titanium-oxide nanomaterials is planned; these materials will be characterized in detail using a unique, multimodal analytical approach that affords simultaneous measurements of their fundamental redox chemistry and device-level figures of merit. The research will contribute to the advancement of EES by enabling the rational design of soluble, redox-active inorganic nanomaterials. Successful completion of this work will ultimately result in the validation of a new class of inorganic charge carriers based on transition metal oxide architectures for flow batteries and related EES technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.