High Performance Energy Storage Electrodes through Oxide Electrodeposition in Carbon Nanotube Fabric Scaffolds

这项拨款支持研究先进的电化学储能电极的制造，进一步促进科学和工程，从而促进国家的繁荣和安全。从便携式电子设备到电动汽车，对电化学能量存储系统的需求不断增加，这种系统可以提供高功率和高能量密度的应用。这种类型的性能是很难实现的电极通过浆液铸造，到目前为止最常见的制造工艺。纳米结构电极结构可以实现高功率和高能量密度，这在科学文献中已经被广泛讨论。然而，这些纳米结构电极通常需要许多复杂的加工步骤，具有未知的可重复性和可扩展性。本研究项目研究过渡金属氧化物电沉积在排列碳纳米管织物上的制造设计原则。这种新工艺使高性能纳米结构储能电极的可控和可扩展制造成为可能。作为本研究的一部分，发展的基本理解适用于广泛的氧化物基和电沉积储能材料，从而使美国经济和社会受益。除了培养研究生外，该项目的教育计划还包括开发“材料制造设计原理”课程模块，其说明将在公共网站上共享。本研究的总体目标是开发和理解制造设计原则，以产生具有高功率和高能量密度的纳米结构排列碳纳米管织物和过渡金属氧化物电化学储能电极。实现这一目标克服了纳米结构电极放大过程中通常面临的技术障碍，并为储能处理提供了一条具有深远工业影响潜力的变革性途径。制造设计原则应用于纳米材料的合成和组装，特别是减少可预测组装的材料数量和加工步骤，利用表面功能化实现材料的自定位和自粘附，并实现模块化。研究人员利用先进的材料表征技术来确定加工与电极结构、成分和电化学性能之间的关系。利用有限元模型将电极微观结构（如氧化物晶粒尺寸或厚度）与电化学插层程度联系起来。这项研究的基本理解导致了对高功率和高能量密度的纳米结构储能体系结构的预测控制。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。

This grant supports research to investigate the manufacturing of advanced electrochemical energy storage electrodes, furthering both science and engineering and thereby enhancing national prosperity and security. There is increased demand for electrochemical energy storage systems that can provide both high power and high energy densities for applications ranging from portable electronics to electric vehicles. This type of performance is difficult to achieve with electrodes made via slurry-casting, by far the most common manufacturing process. Nanostructured electrode architectures can achieve high power and high energy densities, as has been widely discussed in the scientific literature. However, these nanostructured electrodes usually require many complex processing steps with unknown reproducibility and scalability. This research project studies manufacturing design principles for the electrodeposition of transition metal oxides onto aligned carbon nanotube fabrics. This new process enables the controllable and scalable fabrication of high-performance nanostructured energy storage electrodes. The fundamental understanding developed as part of this research is applicable to a wide range of oxide-based and electrodeposited energy storage materials, thus benefitting the U.S. economy and society. In addition to training of graduate students, the education plan of the project includes the development of a 'Materials Manufacturing Design Principles' course module, instructions for which will be shared on publicly-accessible websites. The overarching goal of this research is to develop and understand the manufacturing design principles that yield nanostructured aligned carbon nanotube fabric and transition metal oxide electrochemical energy storage electrodes with high power and high energy densities. Achieving this goal overcomes the technical barriers that are typically faced in the scale-up of nanostructured electrodes and provides a transformative route for energy storage processing with the potential for far-reaching industrial impact. Manufacturing design principles are applied to the nanomaterial synthesis and assembly, specifically, reducing the number of materials and processing steps for predictable assembly, utilizing surface functionalization to enable material self-location and self-adhesion, and enabling modularity. The researchers utilize advanced materials characterization techniques to determine the relationships between processing and electrode architecture, composition, and electrochemical performance. Finite-element modeling is utilized to correlate the electrode microstructure, such as oxide grain size or thickness, with the extent of electrochemical intercalation. The fundamental understanding from this research leads to predictive control over nanostructured energy storage architectures with both high power and high energy densities.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.