PFI-TT: Next Generation High Energy Storage, Light Weight Capacitors

这个创新技术转化伙伴关系（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是将基于纳米工程和高性能材料的下一代电容器商业化。电容器是电子电路中无处不在的元件；每个手机里都有500多个电容器。电容器制造商需要改进、小型化和延长商用电容器的使用寿命，以改善商业应用。与制造合作伙伴一起，将寻求满足这些需求的电容器的商业化。在控制电路和延长电池寿命的能量存储方面的初步应用对最终用户工业合作伙伴至关重要。在其商业应用中的操作和制造过程的证明将作为扩大在整个电子工业中使用电容器的基础，产生一个巨大的市场。初步分析表明，电容器可以提供商业上没有的功能，并且比目前的电容器成本更低。通过使用常见的材料，该团队避免了目前商业产品中的稀有元素，以及它们对环境的重大影响和不确定的可用性。这种电容器是可扩展的，最终将广泛应用于集成电路芯片和电力系统。合作伙伴关系包括关键制造工具的开发人员和电容器制造商，他们将帮助指导制造和商业化工作。提出的项目将通过显著增加电极的表面积、绝缘层的介电常数和极薄介电层的击穿电压来推进电容器的储能。通过在一个小的占地面积上制造定向纳米结构，使表面积最大化。这些结构，涂上一层高介电常数的纳米层压板薄膜，是电容器的电极，与目前的电容器相比，可以产生改进的电压操作和非常高的电容。纳米层状介电材料使用先进的原子层沉积技术进行堆叠，使得介电常数比单个材料的介电常数至少增加一个数量级，这是由于一种称为麦克斯韦-瓦格纳弛豫的过程。所选择的纳米层叠材料具有类似的吉布自由形成能，这导致高击穿电压，从而导致低电流泄漏。这种优点是低电流泄漏将导致高能量密度电容器具有更小的足迹和更高的击穿电压比市售的。作为电子电路和小型储能技术（如可穿戴设备、传感器和用于电力稳定的电池-电容器混合动力车）的组件，该技术有可能对消费电子市场产生重大影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to commercialize the next generation of capacitors based on nanoengineering and high performance materials. Capacitors are ubiquitous components of electronic circuits; There are over 500 capacitors in every cell phone. Capacitor manufacturers need to improve, miniaturize, and extend the lifetime of commercial capacitors in order to improve commercial applications. With a manufacturing partner, commercialization of the capacitors that meet these needs will be sought. Initial applications in control circuits and energy storage for extending battery lifetimes are critical to the end-user industrial partners. Proof of operation and manufacturing processes in their commercial applications will serve as a base to expand the use of the capacitors across the electronics industry, generating a large market. Initial analysis indicates that the capacitors may provide functionality not commercially available and at lower cost than present capacitors. By using commonly available materials, the team avoids the rare elements in present commercial products and their significant environmental impacts and uncertain availability. The capacitors are scalable and ultimately will be used widely from integrated circuit chips to power systems. The partnership includes a developer of the critical manufacturing tool, and a capacitor manufacturer who will help guide the manufacturing and commercialization efforts. The proposed project will advance capacitor energy storage by significantly increasing the surface area of the electrodes, the dielectric constant of the insulating layer, and the breakdown voltage with a very thin dielectric layer. The surface area is maximized by fabricating oriented nanostructures on a small footprint area. These structures, coated with a thin film of high dielectric constant nanolaminates, are the capacitors’ electrodes, and produce improved voltage operations and very high capacitance compared to the present capacitors. The nanolaminate dielectric materials are stacked using an advanced atomic layer deposition technique such that the dielectric constant increases by at least an order of magnitude over that of the individual materials due to a process called Maxwell-Wagner relaxation. The materials chosen for the nanolaminate stack have similar Gibb’s free energy of formation which leads to a high breakdown voltage and consequently a low current leakage. This advantage is low current leakage will result in high energy density capacitors that have smaller footprints and higher breakdown voltage than commercially available ones. This technology has the potential to significantly impact consumer electronics market as a component in electronic circuits and small scale energy storage technologies such as wearable devices, sensors, and battery-capacitor hybrids for power stabilization.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.