Graphene oxide stability and electrocatalysis towards electrolyte degradation at high electrochemical potentials

Microbonds是一家总部位于安大略省多伦多的公司，是半导体封装和微芯片行业界面键合线技术研究、开发和应用的先驱和领导者。随着碳纳米材料的出现，该公司已开始将这些纳米级碳用于界面工程应用，特别是在微电子和电化学设备中。许多下一代储能技术，如电池和超级电容器，正在将电化学电池推向更高的电压，以提高其每单位质量或体积的能量。在所需的高电位下，已知碳质电极会自身降解或催化电解质组分的降解，这被认为在电池循环稳定性和自放电中起重要作用。该提案的目的是确定材料加工的最佳条件， 碳模型材料氧化石墨烯在高电池电压下对电解质可显示出最好的电化学稳定性和最小的电催化活性。该模型系统将基于氧化石墨烯单层，其可以在不同程度上进行热处理，以创建具有不同比例的sp2/sp3杂化碳和不同横向微晶尺寸的材料库。我们推测，这些结构导致材料稳定性以及它们对电解质降解的电催化活性的大的变化。除了作为一个模型系统之外，这种材料还具有作为制造电池和超级电容器的电极材料的重要前景，因为它的高比表面积和与自下而上的加工方法的兼容性。该项目与Microbonds的核心技术利益密切相关，其研发部门将参与该项目的所有阶段，最终目标是为电化学储能系统的开发找到纳米碳稳定化的解决方案。这项研究的成果将为许多高压电化学储能系统使用纳米碳铺平道路，为加拿大不断扩大的能源工业做出贡献。

Microbonds is a Toronto, Ontario-based company, a pioneer and leader in the research, development and application of interfacial bonding wire technology for the semiconductor packaging and microchip industries. With the advent of carbon nanomaterials, the company has become engaged in using these nanoscale carbons for interfacial engineering applications, especially in microelectronics and electrochemical devices. Many next-generation energy storage technologies such as batteries and supercapacitors are pushing electrochemical cells to higher voltages in order to boost their energy per unit mass or volume. At the high potentials required, carbonaceous electrodes are known to degrade themselves or catalyze the degradation of electrolyte components, which are thought to play a significant role in cell cycle-stability and self-discharge. The objective of this proposal is to identify an optimized condition for material processing so that a representative nano carbon model material, graphene oxide, can show best electrochemical stability and least electrocatalytic activity towards the electrolyte at high cell voltages. This model system will be based on graphene oxide monolayers which can be thermally treated to various extents to create a library of materials with varying fractions of sp2/sp3 hybridized carbons and varying lateral crystallite sizes. We hypothesize that these structures lead to large variations in material stability as well as their electrocatalytic activity towards electrolyte degradation. Beyond just being a model system, this material also holds significant promise as an electrode material for making batteries and supercapacitors, due to its high specific surface area and compatibility with bottom-up processing methods. The proposed project is intrinsically related to the core technology interest of Microbonds, and its R&D division will partake in all phases of the project, with the end goal to find a solution to nano carbon stabilization for their development of electrochemical energy storage systems. The outcome of this research will pave the way of using nano carbons for many high voltage electrochemical energy storage systems, contributing to the ever expanding energy industry in Canada.