Looking below the surface: Revealing Interfacial Reactions for Sustainable Electrochemical Technologies

我们这个时代最大的挑战之一是迅速向低碳经济过渡，以限制气候变化的程度。英国政府承诺到2050年实现净零排放，这将需要所有行业的脱碳，因此需要开发新技术，以确保安全、可靠的能源供应。太阳能和风能发电的扩张导致可再生能源成本与化石燃料替代品竞争，甚至低于化石燃料替代品。然而，进一步过渡到可再生能源将需要我们在转换、储存和使用能源的方式上进行重大改变，包括应对能源间歇和带电增加的措施。电化学能量储存和转换技术将是这一脱碳努力的核心，与目前的热化学过程(如燃烧)相比，可能会在效率上有所提高。然而，要实现这些效率以及大规模部署所需的性能，需要设计改进的电池和电催化剂材料。这需要了解这些材料的性质以及在使用过程中在其表面发生的反应。尽管我们目前可以在死后研究这些材料，但这几乎不能告诉我们它们在活动过程中发生的反应。该奖学金详细介绍了一项开发和应用一套创新的表征技术的计划，这些技术将使人们能够在运行期间直接观察到电化学设备中埋藏界面上发生的化学反应。通过使用对X射线、电子和中子透明的窗口，可以在不干扰液体环境的情况下，揭示发生在可充电电池电极和电催化剂表面的原子尺度过程，以生产有价值的化学品。这将使人们了解现有材料组合的局限性，并识别和测试新的材料解决方案。该项目的电池和电催化链之间的一个统一主题将是关注浓缩电解液，在浓缩电解液中，带正电荷和负电荷的离子不再完全被溶剂(例如水)包围。这是一种很有前途的策略，可以抑制不希望发生的反应，以延长电池寿命和提高电催化剂效率。它还可以潜在地降低毒性并提高基于这些电解液的设备的安全性，这对于规模化实施是非常必要的。提出的方法将提高我们对这些浓缩液中离子和溶剂在电化学界面上的排列方式以及由此对电化学反应发生的影响的理解。通过这项研究发展的理解有望为设计适合于电网规模存储的低成本、安全的电池系统提供参考，以缓冲断续的可再生能源。它还将有助于确定用于生产碳中性液体燃料和化学品的改进的电催化剂材料和工艺。这些进展将减少我们对化石燃料开采的依赖，最终有助于应对气候变化等长期挑战。

One of the greatest challenges of our time is to rapidly transition towards a low-carbon economy in order to limit the extent of climate change. The UK government's pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 will require decarburisation across all sectors, and thus the development of new technologies to ensure secure, reliable energy supplies are maintained. The expansion of solar and wind power has resulted in renewable energy costs that are competitive with or even undercut fossil fuel alternatives. However, further transition to renewable energy sources will require major changes in how we convert, store and use energy, including measures to deal with their intermittency and increased electrification.Electrochemical energy storage and conversion technologies will be central to this decarburisation effort, offering potential improvements in efficiency compared to current thermochemical processes (e.g. combustion). However, realising these efficiencies along with the performance needed for large-scale deployment requires the design of improved battery and electrocatalyst materials. This requires understanding of the nature of these materials and the reactions occurring on their surfaces during use. Although we can currently study these materials post-mortem, this tells us little about the reactions that occurred during their active life. This fellowship details a plan to develop and apply a suite of innovative characterisation techniques that will enable chemical reactions occurring at the buried interfaces in electrochemical devices to be directly observed during operation. By using windows that are transparent to X-rays, electrons and neutrons, the atomic-scale processes occurring on the surface of rechargeable battery electrodes and electrocatalysts for producing valuable chemicals will be revealed without disturbing the liquid environments in which they operate. This will enable the limitations of existing material combinations to be understood, and for new material solutions to be identified and tested.A unifying theme between the battery and electrocatalysis strands of this project will be a focus on concentrated electrolytes, in which the positively and negatively charged ions are no longer fully surrounded by a solvent (e.g. water). This is a promising strategy for supressing undesired reactions in order to extend battery life and improve electrocatalyst efficiency. It can also potentially reduce toxicity and improve safety in devices based on these electrolytes, which is highly desirable for their implementation at scale. The proposed approach will improve our understanding of how ions and solvents arrange at electrochemical interfaces in these concentrated solutions, and the resulting impact on the electrochemical reactions occurring.The understanding developed through this program of research is expected to inform the design of low-cost, safe battery systems suitable for grid-scale storage to buffer intermittent renewable energy sources. It will also contribute to the identification of improved electrocatalyst materials and processes for the production of carbon-neutral liquid fuels and chemicals. These advances will reduce our reliance on fossil fuel extraction, ultimately helping to tackle long-term challenges such as climate change.