Bioinspired green manufacturing of next generation energy storage materials

锂离子电池(LIB)在便携式电子设备中的无处不在，导致了大量关于有望改善性能特性的材料的研究。无论是从它们能输送的能量、它们的使用寿命还是总体成本来看，对改进功能材料的开发都有着迫切的需求。特别是，Li-Ni-Co-Mn-氧化物由于其高的可实现的比容量和良好的长期性能而成为有吸引力的正极材料；它们也被商业化并在电池市场中得到广泛的应用。然而，它们的合成通常需要长时间的极端温度，这占了能源成本的绝大部分。此外，它们的制造是浪费的，是不可持续的。因此，使用更可持续的合成路线有可能大幅降低这一成本。从生物学中学习，我们的目标是发现新的生物灵感路线来生产储能材料。这些方法需要较低的温度，从而减少了能源需求，并允许在纳米尺度上对材料性能进行更好的控制。这是一种全新的方法，从未被应用于储能材料。

The ubiquity of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in portable electronic devices have led to an enormous volume of research on materials promising improved performance characteristics. Whether in terms of the amount of energy they can deliver, their operating lifetime or overall cost, there are pressing demands for the development of improved functional materials. In particular, Li-Ni-Co-Mn-oxides are attractive cathode materials due to their high achievable specific capacity and good long-term performance; they are also commercialised and widely used in the battery market. However, their synthesis typically requires extreme temperatures over long duration, contributing the vast majority of the energy costs. Furthermore, their manufacture is wasteful and is unsustainable. Hence the use of more sustainable synthesis routes has the potential to drastically reduce this expense.Learning from biology, we aim to discover new bioinspired routes to produce energy storage materials. These methods will need lower temperatures, leading to reduced energy demands, and allow for superior control of materials properties on the nanoscale. This is a radically new approach, which has never been applied to energy storage materials.