Scalable Nanomanufacturing of Hierarchical Inorganic-Polymer Hybrid Electrodes for Next Generation High-Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries

以负担得起的成本开发具有高能量和功率密度以及长循环寿命的电化学储能装置仍然是一项重大的科学和技术挑战，涉及到全新电极和电解液材料的基本化学和性能，以及它们的可扩展制造以实现成本效益。该奖项探索了用于高性能下一代锂离子电池的新型高能电池电极的可扩展制造，该电极将功能性纳米结构聚合物与超高容量无机粒子结合在一起。这项获奖研究将提供对无机-有机混合材料的化学和电化学性质的更好的基础了解，并显著推动对我们社会的可再生能源未来至关重要的下一代能量存储系统。此外，所获得的基础知识和制造策略将有助于设计其他电化学器件和系统，如燃料电池、光电化学电池和电化学传感器。教育和推广的目标是将以可再生能源为中心的研究努力和成果与研究生、本科生和K-12教育紧密结合起来，并在全球传播研究和教育成果。该项目中的综合研究和教育将促进学生、积极学习和他们对可持续能源研究和未来工程职业的兴奋，并增加与可持续能源相关的教育和劳动力发展方面亟需的努力。为了显著推进高能量/功率密度下一代储能系统的发展，迫切需要新的方法来开发高容量、低成本、长循环寿命和能够大规模生产的新型电极材料。本项目致力于合理设计和可扩展的基于溶液的新型分级电池电极系统的合成和器件制造，该系统将纳米结构导电聚合物与无机粒子协同集成，以应对超高容量无机电极材料面临的根本挑战。这些方法主要集中在(I)设计和可伸缩合成具有可调结构的分层无机-聚合物电极(HIPE)以显著增强储能能力；(Ii)了解其电学和电化学性质，以及研究包括可伸缩性和可制造性在内的关键设计问题；(Iii)通过微观表征和力学模拟来基础研究纳米尺度杂化界面的电化学动力学。这项研究从科学和工程两个角度出发，将为下一代锂电池技术建立一种新型的混合电池电极系统。预期的结果将提高在分子水平上优化这些新型材料的电化学性质的结构设计的知识，并提供对纳米级无机-有机杂化界面上的电化学动力学的更深入的理解。学术研究人员与国家实验室和技术公司的合作将有助于将这一基础研究集中在实际问题上，并加快纳米制造的规模。

Developing electrochemical energy storage devices with high energy and power densities as well as long cycle life at an affordable cost still remains a major scientific and technological challenge involving the fundamental chemistry and properties of radically new electrode and electrolyte materials and their scalable manufacturing for cost effectiveness. This award explores the scalable manufacturing of a new class of high-energy battery electrodes that incorporate functional nanostructured polymers with ultrahigh-capacity inorganic particles for high performing next generation lithium-ion batteries. This award research will provide a better fundamental understanding of chemical and electrochemical properties of hybrid inorganic-organic materials, and significantly advance the next generation of energy storage systems that are crucial to the renewable energy future of our society. Moreover, fundamental knowledge and manufacturing strategy gained will be useful for designing other electrochemical devices and systems such as fuel cells, photoelectrochemical cells, and electrochemical sensors. The education and outreach objective is to tightly integrate the renewable energy-centered research efforts and results with graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 education and to globally disseminate both research and education outcomes. The integrated research and education in this project will promote students, active learning and their excitement for sustainable energy research and future engineering career, and increase critically-needed efforts in education and workforce development related to sustainable energy. New approaches towards the development of novel electrode materials with high capacity, low-cost, long cycle life and the ability to be produced at large scale, are critically needed in order to significantly advance the progress towards high energy/power density next-generation energy storage systems. This project focuses on rational design and scalable solution-based synthesis and device fabrication of a novel hierarchical battery electrode system that synergistically integrate nanostructured conductive polymers with inorganic particles to address fundamental challenges faced by ultrahigh-capacity inorganic electrode materials. The approaches are focused on (i) design and scalable synthesis of hierarchical inorganic-polymer electrodes (HIPE) with tunable structures for greatly enhanced energy storage capabilities, (ii) understanding their electronic and electrochemical properties, as well as studying the critical design issues including scalability and manufacturability, and (iii) fundamental investigation of electrochemical dynamics at the nanoscale hybrid interface through microscopic characterizations and mechanistic simulations. This research aimed from both scientific and engineering perspective will establish a new class of hybrid battery electrode systems for next-generation lithium battery technologies. The expected results will improve the knowledge of structural design at the molecular level for optimized electrochemical properties of these novel materials, and provide a deeper understanding of electrochemical dynamics at the nanoscale hybrid inorganic-organic interface. The partnership of academic researchers with national laboratory and technology company will help focus this fundamental research on practical issues and accelerate the nanomanufacturing scale-up.