Nanoscale electrode coatings for high energy density lithium & sodium-ion batteries - 1. Surface science 2. Energy

高能量密度锂纳米级电极涂层

• 批准号: 2766322
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Warwick
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2766322
• 关键词: Nanoscale; electrode; coatings; energy; density

Battery storage is a rapidly evolving technology and will play a pivotal role in mitigating climate change. It is clear that battery storage is essential for meeting the UK government's targets of net zero emissions by 2050, and a 68% reduction in emissions by 2030, however, the rapid deployment and wider accessibility of battery storage will strongly depend on innovations to increase their energy density and longevity substantially. The future of battery storage is enormous and will be central to revolutionising how we generate, deploy and manage energy distribution over the coming decades.In this research project, you will investigate methods to boost the energy density and longevity of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) by coating silicon-based anode materials with ultra-thin (<5 nm) dielectric films such as silicon dioxide, silicon nitride and hafnium oxide films by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD). This is of significant interest because silicon has an impressive storage capacity (~10x higher than that for industry-standard graphite anodes), whereby one silicon atom can bond with up to four lithium ions, while it takes six carbon atoms to bond with only one lithium ion in graphite-based anodes. However, without a protective coating, silicon anodes rapidly degrade and tend to crack and become pulverized when used in LIBs, thereby leading to a large capacity fade. It is thus pivotal to develop and apply thin film methods to terminate the dangling bonds on the silicon surface to inhibit irreversible damage to the anode material. While silicon anode materials will be the main focus of this project, the use of ALD coatings on other anode materials is extremely versatile (especially for sodium-ion batteries, SIBs), and thus could open up a vast number of research directions within this project. If desirable, there are also opportunities to develop non-toxic, non-volatile electrolyte solutions for their use in LIBs and SIBs.

电池储能是一项快速发展的技术，将在减缓气候变化方面发挥关键作用。很明显，电池存储对于实现英国政府到2050年净零排放以及到2030年减排68%的目标至关重要，然而，电池存储的快速部署和更广泛的可及性将在很大程度上取决于大幅提高其能量密度和寿命的创新。电池存储的未来是巨大的，并将在未来几十年内彻底改变我们如何产生，部署和管理能源分配的核心。在这个研究项目中，您将研究通过在硅基阳极材料上涂覆超薄（<5 nm）介电薄膜（如二氧化硅），通过等离子体增强原子层沉积（PE-ALD）形成氮化硅和氧化铪膜。这是非常重要的，因为硅具有令人印象深刻的存储容量（比工业标准石墨阳极高约10倍），因此一个硅原子可以与多达四个锂离子键合，而在石墨基阳极中需要六个碳原子才能与一个锂离子键合。然而，在没有保护涂层的情况下，硅阳极在用于LIB中时迅速降解并且倾向于破裂和变成粉末，从而导致大容量衰减。因此，开发和应用薄膜方法来终止硅表面上的悬挂键以抑制对阳极材料的不可逆损伤是关键的。虽然硅阳极材料将是该项目的主要焦点，但在其他阳极材料上使用ALD涂层是非常通用的（特别是对于钠离子电池，SIB），因此可以在该项目中开辟大量的研究方向。如果需要，也有机会开发无毒、非挥发性的电解质溶液用于LIB和SIB。