Materials for Renewable Energy NaturE's Way (RENEW)

按照目前的消耗速度，我们用来制造当今清洁能源技术的许多材料可能在几十年或更短的时间内变得稀缺或消失。此外，改善用于清洁能源生产的材料的性能，从而实现更高的效率，仍然是一项迫切的需要。PERE：RENEW将使用基于生物的材料来改善材料性能，并在清洁能源技术中创造可持续的替代品，重点是太阳能和风能发电而不是液体燃料等应用。围绕这一重点将建立一个国际研究计划。该计划将汇集所需的跨学科专业知识，以开发提供功能改进的替代品，考虑当前和未来的全球原材料供应，并旨在减轻生产和处置过程中的环境影响。参与这项研究的学生将接受跨学科和全球方法解决可持续发展问题的培训。这些因素结合在一起，将使PERE：RENEW能够创建一个国际研究网络，一个能够为广泛的能源技术挑战提供先进的可持续材料解决方案的网络，并教育学生成为行业和学术道路上有价值的人。智力优势：帝国：Renews的研究将探索在可再生能源应用中使用天然衍生和其他生物基材料，在可再生能源应用中，分子间和界面相互作用在自组装和聚集、建造具有特殊性能的结构材料以及纳米光电子学中发挥关键作用。为了实现这一愿景，跨学科研究将：-探索用生物基纳米复合材料建造风力涡轮机叶片，该复合材料具有工程界面，由纤维素纳米纤维和生物基环氧热固性和聚酯热塑性基质材料组成。这些创新的生物基纳米复合材料将与由生物基或石油衍生树脂和功能化碳纳米管组成的纳米复合材料进行比较。-探索与电荷传输和传输相关的分子和超分子结构-性质关系自组织分子树枝状和电子功能化的生物基纤维素纳米晶须、细菌纤维素纤维和槐脂表面活性剂用于太阳能应用国际伙伴关系：由格罗斯研究实验室(纽约大学保利分校)与合作者(UMONS，博洛尼亚)合作开发的来自可再生碳源的新的可持续材料提供了与Manas及其合作者(CWRU，Santa Catarina)的风能研究以及Singer和合作者(CWRU，Penn，Shefffield)的太阳能研究的关键研究联系。只有通过这些国际合作伙伴的联系，才能实现研究愿景，因为它需要i)材料合成(Gross，Percec)，ii)加工(Manas，Singer，Percec，Dubois，Pezzin，Fontana，Coelho)和iii)表征(Ungar，Scanola，Manas，Singer)的特定专业知识和设施，以创建其预期的材料--以及为学生提供国际/跨学科教育。更广泛的影响：创造的新材料和理解可能适用于能源以外的可持续性(例如，消费品)。在国际地点进行的教师授课将向PIRE以外的学生开放，无论是面对面的授课还是发布到互联网的授课。PERO小组创建的网站和网上教育材料遗产将分享其研究成果，并向科学界提供通过帖子、项目想法、视频等作出回应的机会。该网站还将发布收集的关于可持续材料和可再生能源应用的链接/文章的信息交换中心。由来自商业、政策和环境学院的学生团队承担的“可持续发展挑战”也将被写成教育模块。

At current rates of consumption, many of the materials we use to make today's clean energy technologies could be scarce or gone in decades or less. Furthermore, improving the performance of materials for clean energy generation, resulting in higher efficiency processes, remains a critical need. PIRE: RENEW will use biological-based materials to both improve material performance and create sustainable replacements in clean energy technologies, focusing on applications such as solar and wind power rather than liquid fuel. An international research program will be built around this focus. This program will draw together the interdisciplinary expertise necessary to develop replacements that provide improvements in function, consider current and future global raw material availability, and are designed to mitigate environmental impact both in production and disposal. Students involved in this research will be trained in an interdisciplinary and global approach to sustainability problem solving. Together, these elements will allow PIRE: RENEW to create an international research nexus, one that can provide advanced sustainable material solutions for a broad range of energy technology challenges, and educate students to be valuable for industry and academic paths. Intellectual Merit: PIRE: RENEW's research will explore the use of naturally derived and other biobased materials in renewable energy applications where intermolecular and interfacial interactions play a key role in self-assembly and aggregation, in building structural materials with exceptional properties, and in nanoscale optoelectronics. To carry out this vision, interdisciplinary research will: - Explore building wind turbine blades from biobased nanocomposites with engineered interfaces consisting of cellulose nanofibers and biobased epoxy thermoset and polyester thermoplastic matrix materials. These innovative biobased nanocomposites will be compared with nanocomposites consisting of biobased or petroleum-derived resins and functionalized carbon nanotubes. - Explore molecular and supramolecular structure-property relationships relevant for charge transport and transfer in self-organized molecular dendron and electronically functionalized biobased cellulose nanowhiskers, bacterial cellulose fibrils, and sophorolipid surfactants for solar energy applications Need for International Partnership: New sustainable materials from readily-renewable carbon sources developed in the Gross research lab (NYU-POLY) with collaborators (UMONS, Bologna) provide the critical research nexuses with the wind energy research of Manas and collaborators (CWRU, Santa Catarina) and the solar energy research of Singer and collaborators (CWRU, Penn, Sheffield). Only through the connection of these international partners is the research vision achievable, as it requires specific expertise and facilities of i) materials synthesis (Gross, Percec), ii) processing (Manas, Singer, Percec, Dubois, Pezzin, Fontana, Coelho), and iii) characterization (Ungar, Scandola, Manas, Singer) to create its intended materials - as well as to provide students an international/interdisciplinary education. Broader Impact: The new materials and understandings created could apply to sustainability outside energy (e.g., consumer products). Faculty lectures given at international locations will be open to students outside the PIRE, both in person and in posting to the Internet. A website and legacy of web-based educational materials created by the PIRE team will share its research and give the opportunity to the scientific community to respond through posts, project ideas, video, etc. The website will also publish a clearinghouse of gathered links/articles on sustainable materials and renewable energy applications. "Sustainability challenges" taken on by student teams with input from business, policy, and environment faculty will also be written up as educational modules.