Porous Silicon Nanoparticle and Graphite Hybrid Structures for Li-Ion Battery Anodes

这笔Engage赠款将专注于与Elcora先进材料和Dasog研究实验室合作开发多孔硅纳米颗粒/石墨(Si/C)混合材料，该材料将被探索为锂离子电池(LIB)的高容量阳极。LIBS被广泛用于便携式电子产品的储能，Elcora生产高质量的石墨，用作商业LIBS的阳极。然而，传统的石墨阳极理论重量容量较低，不适合网格规模的存储。石墨与硅的结合可以增加重量容量，改善阳极的导电性和离子迁移，并缓解纯硅阳极的体积膨胀问题。该项目将开发的硅/碳混合材料将提供高容量的阳极，可以将Elcora推向市场，推出可用于电网规模存储的颠覆性新LIB产品。达索格博士在硅纳米材料方面拥有专业知识，她的研究小组将用Elcora提供的石墨来制备硅/碳杂化材料。混合材料的孔隙率和层次结构将由Dasog实验室改变，以适应锂化过程中硅的体积膨胀。Elcora的研究人员将在LIBS中测试这些材料作为阳极。人们对二氧化碳排放增加的担忧日益加剧，为了减缓气候变化，社会需要增加对太阳能和风能等可再生能源的使用。然而，还需要同时开发存储解决方案，以将太阳能等间歇性能源大规模集成到电网中。该项目将帮助Elcora高级材料公司开发具有潜力的能源储存解决方案，以可持续的方式满足加拿大很大一部分电力需求。

This engage grant will focus on the development of porous silicon nanoparticle/graphite (Si/C) hybrid materials in collaboration with Elcora Advanced Materials and Dasog research lab which will be explored as high capacity anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). LIBs are widely used for energy storage in portable electronics and Elcora produces high-quality graphite that is used as anodes in commercial LIBs. However, the low theoretical gravimetric capacity of the conventional graphite anodes makes them inapt for grid-scale storage. Combining graphite with silicon can increase the gravimetric capacity and improve the conductivity and ion-transport in the anode, as well as mitigate the problems with volume expansion in pure silicon anodes. The Si/C hybrid materials that will be developed in this project will provide high-capacity anodes that can position Elcora in the marketplace with a disruptive new LIB product that can be used for grid-scale storage. Dr. Dasog has expertise in silicon nanomaterials and her research group will prepare the Si/C hybrid materials with the graphite supplied by Elcora. The porosity and the hierarchal makeup of the hybrid materials will be varied by the Dasog lab to accommodate volume expansion in silicon during lithiation. These materials will be tested as anodes in LIBs by Elcora researchers. Growing concerns over increased carbon dioxide emissions and to mitigate climate change, society needs to increase the use of renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind. However, storage solutions also need to be developed simultaneously for large-scale integration of intermittent energy sources such as solar into electrical grids. The project will help Elcora Advanced Materials develop energy storage solutions has the potential to deliver a large proportion of Canada's electricity needs in a sustainable manner.