Solid state (electro)chemistry in confined dimensions

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Demands for advanced energy storage and conversion systems have increased significantly each year for the last decade. Motivated by a variety of different needs, they have in common the benefits for our technologically-driven, highly mobile, energy challenged society. Efforts in the past have been spurred by portable and miniaturized electronics, uninterrupted power supplies, power tools, and other transportable devices. Although these will remain into the future, more pressing needs in the face of diminishing oil reserves and increased CO2 emissions will arise. They will be met by the efficient use of renewable energies such as solar and wind, where energy storage is necessary to provide critical load levelling; and in energy storage and conversion devices for hybrid (or electric) vehicles to mitigate fuel consumption and urban pollution. In the last funding cycle we have established ourselves as a premier laboratory worldwide in the discovery and investigation of new materials for energy storage, and launched a new program in energy conversion materials. This proposal describes a research program with three major themes. One includes a cluster of materials science projects aimed at the development of new strategies for producing advanced materials. The second theme includes research in the field of nanostructured design. Some of these projects are directed towards studies of new energy storage materials and their reactions; others on mesoporous carbons and their utilization in energy conversion devices; and another is focused on the correlation of ion and electron transport in solids to electrochemical properties and how this differs in the bulk vs the nanoscale. The third theme is directed towards using nanostructures to control chemical, and electrochemical reactivity. The unifying concept of this proposal is the utilization of our expertise in a wide range of materials synthesis, electrochemistry, and characterization tools to conduct fundamental research in the areas of solid state chemistry devoted to energy materials. The research proposed here takes me and my research group into many new directions while building upon knowledge and skills developed over the past funding cycle.