Energy Storage Materials: Discovery and Electrochemistry

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Electrochemical energy storage has never been more important than today. The development of viable, long-term solutions that will meet global energy needs remains one of the most critical challenges facing the scienti?c community. Amid burgeoning energy costs and sustainability concerns, international focus on energy storage (and its partner energy conversion) has rapidly gained momentum. During the course of our NSERC discovery grant research, we have made a breakthrough discovery that is changing the way electrochemists think about energy storage. Our initial work in this area was reported in Nature Materials, 2009 and described “a first” for energy storage in confined dimensions. This finding kick-started the field of lithium-sulfur batteries that has increased exponentially ever since. Moreover, this discovery helped point the way to developments in Li (and Na)-oxygen batteries, and along with Na-ion electrochemistry has become the foundation for new approaches to “beyond Li-ion batteries”. In this proposal we target the further development of these new technologies with a combination of nanochemistry/technology and fundamental solid state chemistry/ionics, necessary to bring about step-changes. Extension of the concepts upon which the breakthrough is based will be explored with system modifications for taking aprotic Li-S chemistry to a more sustainable aqueous medium. Here we plan to both garner a deeper understanding of the electrochemistry as well as expand the range of reactivity and utility of our approach. This will be coupled with fundamental discovery of new solid state ion conductors (SSICs) to serve as protective inorganic-organic membranes which will also be utilized for studies of aqueous oxygen electrochemistry using newly tailored electrocatalysts. The efforts in SSICs will furthermore serve as the platform for a cutting-edge undertaking in all-solid state Li and Na-ion batteries, where achieving high ionic conduction and controlling interfaces are key. Our approach will weave innovative materials chemistry discovery with sophisticated operando techniques to probe working electrochemical cells. Novel Li and Na SSIC materials will be developed using our significant arsenal of solid state synthesis tools, along with computational and physico-chemical studies to elucidate the important factors that govern ion mobility. These ion conductors will be interfaced with new positive Na-ion electrode materials that will be discovered through the course of the project. In this fashion, we hope to uncover fundamentally new yet lower cost, environmentally friendly energy storage solutions. Such developments could impact directly on fundamental science and also lead to practical innovations.