EAGER: Direct Storage of Solar Energy as Electricity

充足的清洁和负担得起的能源供应对美国的经济增长、生活质量和安全至关重要。能源问题有两个方面。预计到2050年，世界能源需求将增加一倍以上（从13太瓦增加到30太瓦），到世纪末将增加两倍以上。不断增长的需求将在全球范围内对逐渐枯竭的化石燃料储备产生激烈的竞争，危及我们依赖低成本能源供应的生活质量。另一方面，温室气体排放的增加很可能与全球变暖有关。事实上，大气中二氧化碳--全球气候变化的关键因素--的浓度达到了有记录以来的最高水平，而且还将进一步增加。在增加能源供应的同时减少二氧化碳排放是当今全球社会面临的主要挑战之一。未来能够满足这一双重需求的能源包括太阳能、风能和核能--所有这些能源都可以产生电力作为主要的能源形式。太阳能是唯一真正的可再生资源，可以充分利用，以严重影响全球能源需求;然而，太阳能的储存一直是一个巨大的挑战。智力优势：重点是将转换和存储系统紧密集成到电化学反应器中，称为“直接太阳能发电（DSE）反应器”。该概念是利用太阳能以连续模式激活液体氧化还原对;因此，太阳能可以直接作为电力存储在新型液流电池中。拟议的活动涉及电化学、反应堆设计、有机合成和半导体物理等跨学科领域。用于直接储存太阳能的自由基有机化合物的优点是（1）由于有机自由基的快速反应动力学而具有极高的功率，（2）易于对有机自由基进行改性以促进特定功能，以及（3）在这些有机化合物中不存在昂贵或有毒的金属离子。将太阳能直接储存为电力的概念在早期阶段是一项“高风险、高回报”的探索性工作，但可能具有变革性。更广泛的影响：具体的预期更广泛的影响如下：（1）将培训一名研究生，增加电池，电化学和能源/环境领域的专家库;（2）将积极招募两名本科生，并利用南加州大学的本科生研究奖学金建立一个多元化的群体，包括妇女和/或代表性不足的少数群体成员;（3）PI将与中学教师和学生互动。中学已被选为该项目的外展重点。通过这项推广活动，PI希望激发学生对科学和技术领域的兴趣，从而鼓励学生在高中并最终进入大学从事STEM职业，以及（4）先进能源系统的及时研究发展将被纳入南卡罗来纳州大学工程学院的材料课程。

1408751ZhouAn abundant supply of clean and affordable energy is vital to the economic growth, quality of life, and security of the United States. There are two aspects of the energy problem. World demand for energy is projected to more than double by 2050 (from 13 to 30 terawatts) and more than triple by the end of the century. The increasing demand will create fierce worldwide competition for the gradually depleting fossil fuel reserves, putting in danger our quality of life that depends on a supply of energy at a low cost. On the other hand, increasing greenhouse emission is mostly likely linked to global warming. Indeed, the concentration of CO2 - the key contributor to global climate change, in the atmosphere, is at the highest recorded level since records began - and it is set to further increase. The need to simultaneously increase our energy supply while reducing CO2 emissions is one of the major challenges facing our global society today.Future energy sources that can meet these dual requirements include solar, wind, and nuclear energy - all of which can produce electricity as the primary form of energy. Solar power is the only truly renewable resource which can be harnessed in sufficient quantities to seriously impact worldwide energy needs; however storage of solar energy has been a great challenge to tackle. The Intellectual Merit: The focus is to tightly integrate conversion and storage systems into an electrochemical reactor, named "direct solar-to-electricity (DSE) reactor". The concept is to utilize solar energy to activate a liquid redox couple in a continuous mode; as a result, solar energy can be directly stored as electricity in a novel liquid flow battery. The proposed activities engage interdisciplinary areas of electrochemistry, reactor design, organic synthesis and semiconductor physics. The advantages of radical organic compounds for direct storage of solar energy are (1) an extremely high power due to fast reaction kinetics of the organic radicals, (2) ease of organic radicals to be modified to facilitate specific functions and (3) absence of expensive or toxic metal ions in these organic compounds. The concept of direct storage of solar energy as electricity is a "high risk-high pay off" exploratory work in its early stages, but could be transformative. Broader impacts: Specific anticipated broader impacts are as follows: (1) one graduate student will be trained, increasing the pool of experts in the areas of batteries, electrochemistry, and energy/environment; (2) two undergraduate students will be actively recruited and leveraged with the Undergraduate Research Fellowships at USC to build a diverse group that includes women and/or members of underrepresented minority groups; (3) The PI will interact with middle school teachers and students. Middle School has been chosen as the outreaching focus of this project. Through this outreach activity, the PI hopes to spark interest in the scientific and technological field, thereby encouraging students to follow a STEM career into high school and ultimately into college, and (4) Timely research developments on advanced energy systems will be incorporated into the Materials curriculum within the College of Engineering at the University of South Carolina.