Advances Polymer material for Energy Security - POLYMAT

目前面临的两个最关键的全球挑战是能源安全和气候变化。在英国，预计未来十年将有超过1000亿英镑的投资用于新的英国发电站和电网基础设施，以取代老化的工厂，并允许纳入可再生能源。这种变化将涉及我们发电和输电方式的范式转变。由于发电厂所有项目的核心要素是电气绝缘，通过部署新的创新工厂来应对我们未来的挑战，这将需要开发和利用新的高性能绝缘材料系统。聚合物纳米复合材料已经显示出明显的潜力，但缺乏对潜在物理和化学的详细了解是技术实现这种潜力的主要障碍。在某些实验室研究中，纳米介电材料的性能优于未填充的和传统的微复合绝缘材料。然而，其他地方也出现了完全相反的结果。毫无疑问，这种宏观行为的可变性是由于我们无法定义和控制决定纳米复合材料介电行为的关键因素。该项目的首要目标是解决这个问题，以便充分利用介电纳米复合材料-纳米电介质的潜力。因此，该项目与EPSRC能源材料主题完全一致，该主题被认为是“在先进材料领域，有必要加强先进材料的合理设计和表征方法，并将其融入结构和系统”。它也符合“八大技术”的先进材料主题，它被认为是“这些材料是必不可少的世纪制造业在英国市场价值1700亿英镑，每年占国内生产总值的15%”我们的研究假设是，如果不了解纳米电介质之间的界面处发生的过程，就不能可靠地控制纳米电介质的宏观性质。基质材料和纳米颗粒，因为这些区域直接影响两个关键问题。首先，界面相互作用将影响纳米颗粒分散，这对许多物理性质具有主要影响，其次，界面的性质决定了系统中的局部态密度，从而决定了材料的整体电学特性。要了解这样的本地过程是具有挑战性的，我们建议这样做，通过计算模拟和实验相结合，这两个方面是紧密结合，从而允许模拟直接实验和实验结果，以完善模拟。工作方案分为3个不同的主题，这将逐步将工作从基础转向开发。因此，主题1将集中于模型系统，其中模拟和实验可以最紧密地结合起来。然后，主题2将设法将关键信息用于技术相关系统和程序的开发。在整个过程中，主题3将与从关键行业参与者（设备制造商、能源公用事业、标准机构）到普通公众的一系列利益相关者接触，以最大限度地扩大其最终影响（经济、环境、社会）的范围和意义。我们认为工业用户小组的参与尤为重要，既有助于指导项目，也有助于确保最终出现的技术得到接受。

Two of the most critical global challenges currently being faced are energy security and climate change. In the UK, more than £100 bn of investment in new UK power stations and grid infrastructure is projected within the next decade, both to replace ageing plant and to allow for the incorporation of renewable sources. Such changes will involve a paradigm shift in the ways in which we generate and transmit electricity. Since a central element of all items of power plant is electrical insulation, meeting our future challenges through the deployment of new innovative plant, this will require the development and exploitation of new high performance insulation material systems. Polymer nanocomposites have demonstrated clear potential, but the lack of detailed understanding of the underlying physics and chemistry is a major impediment to the technological realisation of this potential. In certain laboratory studies, nanodielectrics materials have out-performed unfilled and traditional micro-composite insulating materials. However, entirely contrary results have also been elsewhere. Undoubtedly, this variability in macroscopic behaviour comes about as a consequence of our inability to define and control the key factors that dictate the dielectric behaviour of nanocomposites. The overarching aim of this project is to resolve this issue such that the potential of dielectric nanocomposites - nanodielectrics - can be fully exploited. As such, the project is totally aligned with the EPSRC Materials for Energy theme in which it is accepted that "in the field of advanced materials it will be necessary to strengthen approaches to the rational design and characterisation of advanced materials and their integration into structures and systems". It also aligns with the Advanced Materials theme of the "Eight Great Technologies", it which it is accepted that "these materials are essential to 21st century manufacturing in a UK market worth £170 billion per annum and representing 15 per cent of GDP".Our research hypothesis is that the macroscopic properties of nanodielectrics cannot be reliably controlled without understanding the processes that occur at the interfaces between the matrix material and the nanoparticles, because these regions directly affect two critical issues. First, interfacial interactions will affect the nanoparticle dispersion, which has a major bearing on many physical properties and, second, the nature of the interface determines the local density of states in the system, and thereby the material's overall electrical characteristics. To understand such local processes is challenging and we propose to do this through a combination of computation simulation and experiment, where both aspects are closely aligned, thereby allowing the simulation to direct experiment and the experimental result to refine the simulation. The work programme has been divided in 3 distinct themes, which will progressively move the work from fundamentals to exploitation. Theme 1 will therefore concentrate on model systems, where simulation and experiment can be most closely aligned. Theme 2 will then seek to deploy the key messages to the development of technologically relevant systems and processes. Throughout, Theme 3 will engage with a range of stakeholders that will range from key industry players (equipment manufacturer s, energy utilities, standards bodies) to the general public t maximise the reach and significance of its ultimate impact (economic, environmental, societal). We see the involvement of our Industrial Users Group as being particularly important, both in helping to guide the project and in terms of ensuring acceptance of the technologies that will ultimately arise.