High-performance thin film porous pyroelectric materials and composites for thermal sensing and harvesting

热释电材料的热传感与收获是低品位废热回收和红外探测领域一个新兴而活跃的研究课题。然而，目前热释电材料存在传热性能差、效率和灵敏度低等问题，限制了其实际应用。该项目的目标是建模，合成和表征薄膜多孔热释电材料，这些材料是通过水冻带铸造生产的。虽然孔隙的存在降低了介电常数以提高传感和采集性能，但在多孔结构中加入等离子体纳米填料也将显著改善传热。该项目的挑战在于控制薄膜中的定向孔，并根据等离子体填料引起的局部孔加热来调整传热。建模、材料合成和表征的结合将导致用于热释电传感和收获的高性能多功能热敏光热材料的发展。申请者在热释电材料方面的经验和主办方在热释电复合材料和等离子体动力学方面的技能将被用于热释电材料的设计和等离子体纳米粒子的控制。申请人将获得主办方提供的有限元建模和多孔热释电复合材料制备方面的新专业知识。该奖学金将是申请人职业发展的关键一步，扩大她的研究和学术培训。这将通过一个重点培训计划和在整个欧盟建立新的长期合作，以及与其他领先的热能传感和收集研究所/行业的联系来促进。

Thermal sensing and harvesting using pyroelectric materials is an emerging and active research topic with respect to the recovery of low-grade waste heat and infrared detection. However, current pyroelectric materials suffer from poor heat transfer and low efficiency and sensitivity, which limits their practical application. This project targets the modelling, synthesis and characterization of thin-film porous pyroelectric materials that are produced via an aqueous freeze tape casting. While the presence of porosity reduces the permittivity to improve sensing and harvesting performance, the incorporation of plasmonic nanofillers within porous structure will also significantly improve heat transfer. The challenge of this project stems on the control of the directional pores in the thin films and tailoring heat transfer as a result of localized pore heating due to plasmonic fillers. The combination of modelling, materials synthesis and characterization will lead to the development of a high performance multi-functional pyro-photo-thermal material for pyroelectric sensing and harvesting. The experience of the applicant in pyroelectric materials and the skills of the host in pyroelectric composites and plasmonics will be exploited on the design of the pyroelectric materials and the control of the plasmonic nanoparticles. The applicant will gain new expertise in finite element modelling and the preparation of porous pyroelectric composites offered by the host. This fellowship will be a key step in the applicant's career development by expanding her research and academic training. This will be facilitated by a focused training plan and the establishment of new long-term collaborations across the EU, and links with other leading thermal energy sensing and harvesting institutes/industries.