Materials for Renewable Energy NaturE's Way (RENEW)

按照目前的消耗速度，我们用于制造当今清洁能源技术的许多材料可能会在几十年或更短的时间内稀缺或消失。此外，改善清洁能源生产材料的性能，从而提高效率，仍然是一个关键需求。PIRE：RENEW将使用生物基材料来提高材料性能，并在清洁能源技术中创造可持续的替代品，重点关注太阳能和风能等应用，而不是液体燃料。将围绕这一重点建立一个国际研究计划。该计划将汇集开发替代品所需的跨学科专业知识，以改善功能，考虑当前和未来的全球原材料可用性，并旨在减轻生产和处置中的环境影响。参与这项研究的学生将接受跨学科和全球方法的培训，以解决可持续发展问题。这些因素将使PIRE：RENEW能够建立一个国际研究联系，为广泛的能源技术挑战提供先进的可持续材料解决方案，并教育学生对行业和学术道路有价值。智力优势：PIRE：RENEW的研究将探索在可再生能源应用中使用天然衍生和其他生物基材料，其中分子间和界面相互作用在自组装和聚集中发挥关键作用，在建筑结构材料中具有特殊性能，以及在纳米级光电子学中。为了实现这一愿景，跨学科的研究将：-探索建设风力涡轮机叶片从生物基纳米复合材料与工程接口组成的纤维素纳米纤维和生物基环氧树脂热固性和聚酯热塑性基体材料。这些创新的生物基纳米复合材料将与由生物基或石油衍生树脂和官能化碳纳米管组成的纳米复合材料进行比较。- 探索与自组织分子树枝状结构和电子功能化生物基纤维素纳米晶须、细菌纤维素原纤维和槐糖脂表面活性剂在太阳能应用中的电荷传输和转移相关的分子和超分子结构-性质关系Gross研究实验室开发的可再生碳源新可持续材料（NYU-POLY）与合作者（UMONS，Bologna）提供了与Manas和合作者（CWRU，Santa卡塔里纳）的风能研究以及Singer和合作者（CWRU，Penn，谢菲尔德）的太阳能研究的关键研究联系。只有通过这些国际合作伙伴的连接，研究愿景才能实现，因为它需要特定的专业知识和设施i）材料合成（格罗斯，Percec），ii）加工（Manas，Singer，Percec，Dubois，Pezzin，丰塔纳，Coelho）和iii）表征（Ungar，Scandola，Manas，Singer）以创建其预期的材料-以及为学生提供国际/跨学科教育。更广泛的影响：所创造的新材料和理解可以适用于能源以外的可持续性（例如，消费品）。在国际地点举行的教师讲座将向PIRE以外的学生开放，无论是亲自还是通过发布到互联网。由PIRE团队创建的基于网络的教育材料的网站和遗产将分享其研究，并为科学界提供机会，通过帖子，项目想法，视频等做出回应。“可持续发展的挑战”由学生团队与商业，政策和环境教师的投入也将被写入教育模块。

At current rates of consumption, many of the materials we use to make today's clean energy technologies could be scarce or gone in decades or less. Furthermore, improving the performance of materials for clean energy generation, resulting in higher efficiency processes, remains a critical need. PIRE: RENEW will use biological-based materials to both improve material performance and create sustainable replacements in clean energy technologies, focusing on applications such as solar and wind power rather than liquid fuel. An international research program will be built around this focus. This program will draw together the interdisciplinary expertise necessary to develop replacements that provide improvements in function, consider current and future global raw material availability, and are designed to mitigate environmental impact both in production and disposal. Students involved in this research will be trained in an interdisciplinary and global approach to sustainability problem solving. Together, these elements will allow PIRE: RENEW to create an international research nexus, one that can provide advanced sustainable material solutions for a broad range of energy technology challenges, and educate students to be valuable for industry and academic paths. Intellectual Merit: PIRE: RENEW's research will explore the use of naturally derived and other biobased materials in renewable energy applications where intermolecular and interfacial interactions play a key role in self-assembly and aggregation, in building structural materials with exceptional properties, and in nanoscale optoelectronics. To carry out this vision, interdisciplinary research will: - Explore building wind turbine blades from biobased nanocomposites with engineered interfaces consisting of cellulose nanofibers and biobased epoxy thermoset and polyester thermoplastic matrix materials. These innovative biobased nanocomposites will be compared with nanocomposites consisting of biobased or petroleum-derived resins and functionalized carbon nanotubes. - Explore molecular and supramolecular structure-property relationships relevant for charge transport and transfer in self-organized molecular dendron and electronically functionalized biobased cellulose nanowhiskers, bacterial cellulose fibrils, and sophorolipid surfactants for solar energy applications Need for International Partnership: New sustainable materials from readily-renewable carbon sources developed in the Gross research lab (NYU-POLY) with collaborators (UMONS, Bologna) provide the critical research nexuses with the wind energy research of Manas and collaborators (CWRU, Santa Catarina) and the solar energy research of Singer and collaborators (CWRU, Penn, Sheffield). Only through the connection of these international partners is the research vision achievable, as it requires specific expertise and facilities of i) materials synthesis (Gross, Percec), ii) processing (Manas, Singer, Percec, Dubois, Pezzin, Fontana, Coelho), and iii) characterization (Ungar, Scandola, Manas, Singer) to create its intended materials - as well as to provide students an international/interdisciplinary education. Broader Impact: The new materials and understandings created could apply to sustainability outside energy (e.g., consumer products). Faculty lectures given at international locations will be open to students outside the PIRE, both in person and in posting to the Internet. A website and legacy of web-based educational materials created by the PIRE team will share its research and give the opportunity to the scientific community to respond through posts, project ideas, video, etc. The website will also publish a clearinghouse of gathered links/articles on sustainable materials and renewable energy applications. "Sustainability challenges" taken on by student teams with input from business, policy, and environment faculty will also be written up as educational modules.