High Power Energy Storage: New Materials for Large Format Supercapacitors

该项目的重点是将新的超级电容器技术从科学发现阶段一直带到工业相关的演示设备。该项目旨在通过使用纳米结构金属氧化物作为电极材料来增加新型超级电容器设备中存储的能量。该候选人将使用一系列湿化学和先进的合成技术（包括水热，固态和共沉淀法）开发新的纳米结构过渡金属材料，以指导各种过渡金属氧化物的相，粒度和形态。候选人将通过各种表征方法评估这些特性，包括粉末x射线衍射，表面积和孔隙分析以及各种电子显微镜。这些材料将在整个项目中进行筛选，以了解在超级电容器应用中对各种性能的影响。这种筛选将涉及制作小型硬币电池装置和广泛的电化学分析，包括恒电位和恒流技术以及交流阻抗谱。候选人将在能源创新中心的电池放大生产线上将有前途的材料扩展到大尺寸设备上，并在WMG的车辆能源设施中进行测试，从而在工业相关规模上展示其性能的进步。从各种材料合成和表征技术，到小型硬币电池开发和电化学分析，最后到中试规模的原型设计和100安培的高功率和电流测试，候选人将在技术开发的各个阶段都有经验。

The focus of this project is to take new supercapacitor technology from the scientific discovery stage right through to industrially relevant demonstrator devices. The project will aim to increase the energy stored in new supercapacitor devices through the use of nanostructured metal oxides as electrode materials. The candidate will develop new nanostructured transition metal materials using a range of wet chemistry and advanced synthesis techniques (including hydrothermal, solid state and co-precipitation methods) to direct the phase, particle size and morphology of various transition metal oxides. The candidate will assess these properties through various characterisation methods including powder x-ray diffraction, surface area and pore analysis and various electron microscopies. These materials are to be screened throughout the project to understand the effects on various properties in supercapacitor application. This screening will involve making of small coin cell devices and extensive electrochemical analysis including potentiostatic and galvanostatic techniques and AC impedance spectroscopy. Promising materials are to be scaled to large format devices on the Energy Innovation Centre's Battery Scale-up Line by the candidate and tested in WMG's Vehicle Energy Facility, allowing demonstration of advances in performance at an industrially relevant scale. The candidate will become experienced in all stages of development of the technology from various materials synthesis and characterisation techniques, through to small coin cell development and electrochemical analysis, and finally onto pilot scale prototyping and testing at high powers and currents of 100s of amps.