CAREER: Battery-inspired electrodes for efficiently desalinating water or harvesting salinity gradient energy

PI姓名：Christopher A. Gorski提案编号：1749207这项研究的目标将是解决两个主要的国家问题：为公众提供清洁的水和负担得起的电力。这项研究的重点是开发可以用电来淡化海水的电池等设备。此外，这些装置还可以通过将海水与淡水混合来发电，这是美国沿海地区的一个关键优势。该研究旨在通过科学探究来优化这些设备中使用的材料。该教育计划的目标是提高学生对水和能源问题的了解。该项目将研究先前存在的误解如何阻碍学习，并确定提高理解的方法和采用替代教学方法来纠正误解。这项研究的重点是新颖的、以电池为灵感的电化学电池，这种电池可用于淡化海水或利用盐度梯度发电。过去已经提出了几种电化学技术用于这些目的，但由于部分依赖碳电极，它们的性能太低，无法对水和能源部门产生重大影响。该研究的中心假设是，使用电池启发的金属基电极将显著提高系统性能。这一假设得到了初步结果的支持，初步结果表明，与现有技术相比，所提出的电极材料类别可以大大提高海水淡化的能源效率，并增加由盐度梯度产生的电量。为了验证这一假设，PI将重点研究已知与水中钠离子相互作用的四类金属基电极材料。研究的总体目标是构建一个合理选择海水淡化电极材料和收集盐度梯度能的框架。为了实现这一目标，拟议的研究将结合电化学方法、材料表征技术和水生化学测量来系统地研究材料之间存在的关系。(1)充电机理；(2)电化学性能；(3)海水淡化或收集盐度梯度能的性能。PI还将评估实际水中存在的微量元素和污垢剂如何影响电极性能。该教育计划的目标是找出学生对电化学、能源生产、水质和处理的误解，并检验探究性教学方法克服这些误解的有效性。误解是与普遍接受和可证明的科学共识不一致的概念性知识。克服误解对于发展对专业工作和日常生活都很重要的深层概念知识至关重要。建议的工作将利用PI？在学习电化学的工程专业学生和学习水和能源问题的6-8年级学生中，不断开展推广和教育工作，以识别和纠正误解。这项研究具有变革性，因为它将导致对法拉第电极材料充电机制的基本理解，这可以应用于用于海水淡化和收集盐度梯度能量的材料的设计和修改。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

PI Name: Christopher A. Gorski Proposal Number: 1749207 The goal of this research will be to address two major national issues: provide the public with access to clean water and affordable electricity. The research focuses on developing devices like batteries that can use electricity to desalinate water. In addition,these devices can also produce electricity by mixing seawater with freshwater, a key benefit to coastal areas of the United States. The research aims to optimize the materials used in these devices through scientific inquiry. The goal of the education plan is to improve student learning related to water and energy issues. The PI will study how pre-existing misconceptions prevent learning, and identify ways to improve understanding and employ alternative teaching methods to correct misconceptions. The research focuses on novel, battery-inspired electrochemical cells that can be used to desalinate water or generate electricity from salinity gradients. Several electrochemical technologies have been proposed for these purposes in the past, but their performances have been too low to significantly impact the water and energy sectors due partially to their reliance on carbon electrodes. The central hypothesis of the research is that using battery-inspired metal-based electrodes will lead to dramatic improvements in system performance. This hypothesis is supported by preliminary results demonstrating that the classes of proposed electrode materials can greatly increase the energy efficiency of desalinating water and increase the amount of electrical power produced from salinity gradients relative to existing technologies. To test this hypothesis, the PI will focus on four classes of metal-based electrode materials known to interact with sodium ions in water. The overall goal of the research is to construct a framework for rationally selecting electrode materials for desalinating water and harvesting salinity gradient energy. To achieve this goal, the proposed research will use a combination of electrochemical methods, material characterization techniques, and aquatic chemistry measurements to methodically investigate the relationships that exist among the materials? (1) charging mechanisms, (2) electrochemical properties, and (3) performances in desalinating water or harvesting salinity gradient energy. The PI will also assess how trace elements and fouling agents present in real waters affect electrode performance. The goal of the education plan is to identify student misconceptions related to electrochemistry, energy production, and water quality and treatment and to test the effectiveness of inquiry-based teaching methods for overcoming them. A misconception is conceptual knowledge that is inconsistent with commonly accepted and provable scientific consensuses. Overcoming misconceptions is critical for developing deep conceptual knowledge that is important both for professional work and daily life. The proposed work will leverage the PI?s ongoing outreach and educational efforts to identify and repair misconceptions among engineering students studying electrochemistry and grade 6-8 students studying water and energy issues. The research is transformative in that it will lead to a fundamental understanding of faradaic electrode material charging mechanisms, which can be applied to the design and modification of materials used for desalinating water and harvesting salinity gradient energy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.