Organized Nanomaterials for Enhanced Understanding and Performance of Electrochemical Devices

有序纳米材料可增强对电化学装置的理解和性能

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-04747
• 负责人: Birss, Viola
• 金额: $ 6.85万
• 依托单位: University of Calgary
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=692508
• 关键词: Organized; Nanomaterials; Enhanced; Understanding; Performance

This research is focused on the development of a range of new nanomaterials that have many useful applications, including for clean energy conversion and storage technologies (e.g., fuel cells, electrolysis cells involving CO2 conversion, redox flow batteries, etc), with an important sub-goal being to fabricate these in a highly organized fashion so that their properties can be better exploited and also more easily evaluated. In one main branch of this research program, we will continue to develop an exciting new family of high surface area carbon nanomaterials (nanoporous carbon scaffolds, NCS). These are self-supported, conducting membranes, developed recently in the Birss group, that contain highly ordered and fully interconnected nano-sized pores, with a structure similar to a honeycomb. A key goal of our research will be to determine the optimum NCS pore size and thickness that results in the least difficulty in terms of moving solution and gas-phase reactants quickly and easily through the pores during electrochemical cell operation, while still retaining the very high real surface area required for use as a catalyst in energy conversion/storage applications. Using organic chemistry, the internal surfaces of the NCS materials will be modified to enable the attachment of catalytic nanoparticles to the NCS surface for various applications and to influence several other properties of the NCS, including how well water wets' their surfaces. These modifications will be made to better understand and improve the performance of carbon supports under the conditions encountered within fuel cells, capacitors and batteries, with comparisons to be made with ultra-smooth carbon surfaces as well. Another part of the proposed research complements other research in our group, in which metal nanoparticles, such as platinum or tiny nanoparticles with one metal inside their core and a second metal in a thin shell layer, are being developed for a wide range of catalyst applications. We believe the functional groups on the NCS surface will directly influence the size and distribution of these types of NPs during fabrication. Finally, we will attempt to coat the internal surfaces of the NCS with an ultrathin catalytic oxide film and test this composite nanomaterial for its ability to convert CO2 to useful products in a room temperature, aqueous, electrolysis cell. The conversion/utilization of captured CO2 is a key approach being used to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. In addition to employing the most advanced instruments and tools available for this research, these projects will serve to train up to 20 students over five years in these areas of critical importance to Canada and the world.

这项研究的重点是开发一系列具有许多有用应用的新型纳米材料，包括清洁能源转换和存储技术（例如，燃料电池、涉及二氧化碳转换的电解电池、氧化还原液流电池等），一个重要的子目标是以高度组织化的方式制造这些材料，以便更好地利用它们的特性，也更容易评估它们。在该研究计划的一个主要分支中，我们将继续开发令人兴奋的新系列高表面积碳纳米材料（纳米多孔碳支架，NCS）。这些是 Birss 团队最近开发的自支撑导电膜，包含高度有序且完全互连的纳米尺寸孔，其结构类似于蜂窝。我们研究的一个关键目标是确定最佳的 NCS 孔径和厚度，从而在电化学电池操作期间使溶液和气相反应物快速轻松地通过孔隙移动的难度最小，同时仍然保留在能量转换/存储应用中用作催化剂所需的非常高的实际表面积。使用有机化学，NCS 材料的内表面将被修改，以使催化纳米颗粒能够附着到 NCS 表面以用于各种应用，并影响 NCS 的其他几个特性，包括水润湿其表面的程度。这些修改将是为了更好地理解和提高碳载体在燃料电池、电容器和电池中遇到的条件下的性能，并与超光滑碳表面进行比较。拟议研究的另一部分补充了我们小组的其他研究，其中金属纳米粒子，例如铂或微小纳米粒子，其核心内有一种金属，薄壳层内有第二种金属，正在开发用于广泛的催化剂应用。我们相信 NCS 表面的官能团将直接影响制造过程中此类纳米颗粒的尺寸和分布。最后，我们将尝试在 NCS 的内表面涂覆超薄催化氧化膜，并测试这种复合纳米材料在室温水电解池中将二氧化碳转化为有用产品的能力。捕获的二氧化碳的转化/利用是减少二氧化碳排放到大气中的关键方法。 除了在这项研究中使用最先进的仪器和工具外，这些项目还将在五年内在这些对加拿大和世界至关重要的领域培训多达 20 名学生。