CAREER: Microstructural Engineering of Solid Composite Electrolytes through Process Manipulation

这项学院早期职业发展(CALEAR)补助金支持研究，这些研究将提供固体电解质系统中加工和微结构之间的关键、基本关系。该奖项下的发现将通过在从高能材料到结构电池等许多领域的先进能源系统生产来促进国家繁荣。结构电池(即能够承受机械负荷的电池)是提高电动汽车生存能力的一个有吸引力的选择，因为它们用固体电池取代了危险的液体电解液。这些固体电解质通常将电活性聚合物和陶瓷结合在一起，以增强电池的耐用性和电气性能。然而，由于有关制造历史-微结构联系的重大知识差距，目前不可能生产高导电性、机械坚固的固态电池。该奖项支持综合实验和建模，以揭示制造历史(例如，温度、固化条件和剪切速率)对固体复合电解质中电活性聚合物和陶瓷之间界面的影响。这个界面决定了电解液复合材料的机械行为和离子行为。通过了解界面形成机制，可以在制造阶段设计结构电池的性能，从而指导所有规模的工业过程通过微观结构操作来调整和提高结构电池的性能。该项目还旨在加强科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)职业的可及性，向制造业科学的照顾者介绍，并增加本科研究对面临高障碍的人群的可及性。这将通过基于课程的本科生研究经验来实现，加强对本科生研究学者的照顾者支持，并深入社区支持第一代STEM奖学金的父母。这个项目旨在揭示在受控制造条件下微观结构发展的机械理解，以调整复合电解液中的体积响应。研究目标将通过多尺度调查来实现，以填补制造-微观结构-性能生命周期中的知识空白。该研究团队将进行耦合流变学和光谱学，以检查聚合物和陶瓷之间关于界面形成的分子相互作用，利用原子力显微镜技术来量化界面尺寸，并在机械载荷下对电解液样品进行离子电导率测量，以将纳米级效应与整体性能联系起来。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant supports research that will provide critical, fundamental relationships between processing and microstructure in solid electrolyte systems. Findings under this award will promote national prosperity through advanced energy system production in many fields ranging from energetic materials to structural batteries. Structural batteries (i.e., a battery that can bear mechanical load) are an attractive option to improve electric vehicle viability as they replace hazardous liquid electrolytes with a solid counterpart. These solid electrolytes typically combine electroactive polymers and ceramics to enhance battery durability and electrical performance. However, the production of highly conductive, mechanically robust solid-state batteries is currently impossible due to the significant knowledge gaps concerning the manufacturing history – microstructure link. This award supports integrated experiments and modeling to uncover the impact of manufacturing history (e.g., temperature, cure conditions, and shear rate) on the interface between the electroactive polymer and ceramic in solid composite electrolytes. This interface determines how an electrolyte composite behaves mechanically and ionically. By understanding interface formation mechanisms, structural battery performance can be designed during the manufacturing stage, thus informing industrial processes at all scales to tune and enhance structural battery performance through microstructural manipulation. This project also aims to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career accessibility by introducing caregivers to manufacturing science and increasing accessibility of undergraduate research to this population that faces high barriers. This will be accomplished with course-based undergraduate research experiences, enhancing caregiver support for undergraduate research scholars, and reaching into the community to support parents of first-generation STEM scholars.This project aims to unveil a mechanistic understanding of microstructural development in controlled manufacturing conditions to tune bulk response in composite electrolytes. The research objectives will be accomplished through a multi-scale investigation to fill knowledge gaps in the manufacturing-microstructure-performance lifecycle. The research team will perform coupled rheology and spectroscopy to examine molecular interactions between polymer and ceramic regarding interface formation, utilize atomic force microscopy techniques to quantify interface size both mechanically and electrically, and perform ionic conductivity measurements on electrolyte specimens under mechanical load to tie nano-scale effects to bulk performance.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.