Organized Nanomaterials for Enhanced Understanding and Performance of Electrochemical Devices

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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.