Clean Energy

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Climate change due to anthropogenic carbon emissions is one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity today. Floods, erratic and extreme weather conditions, and severe droughts affect not only highly populated coastal regions, but also municipalities with significant infrastructure far inland. As recently as this past winter, extreme weather conditions in Texas combined with insufficient energy storage and vulnerable conventional power generation facilities left a significant portion of the state without power, heat, and clean water for days. Clean energy is vitally needed to build energy security as well as reduce society's reliance on fossil fuels, both of which are needed to prevent further devastating impacts that would otherwise be realized with a business-as-usual pathway for climate change.Electrochemical devices are promising technologies for clean energy storage and on-demand electricity with zero local emissions. Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells and electrolyzers are currently commercially available; however, their high costs are prohibitive for widespread adoption. Decreasing the cost of PEM fuel cells and electrolyzers is contingent upon the development of new catalyst layers tailored for ultra-low loadings and optimized reactant and product transport. Without this key ability to inform and validate the design of new catalysts with accurate morphological characterizations, fuel cells and electrolyzers will be limited to current performances and costs that prohibit widespread adoption. To reduce costs, new material and interface designs must be informed by an understanding of the porous materials and catalyst layers, particularly in pristine and degraded conditions. Due to the opaque nature of electrochemical conversion technologies, traditional microscopy does not provide the capability to directly observe the 3D structure of nanoscale composite materials. Prof. Bazylak has developed internationally recognized work in advancing PEM fuel cells and water electrolyzers through the particular application of 2D operando imaging. She will leverage her past expertise and take her research in a new direction by spatially resolving the electrochemical performance, materials characteristics and behaviour for fuel cells, water electrolyzers, and carbon dioxide electrolyzers operando and in 3D to develop more affordable, longer lasting, and more compact electrochemical energy conversion devices for widespread adoption.