New Materials for Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Capture

二氧化碳捕获和封存是一项重要的温室气体减缓技术，可以帮助应对气候危机。传统的胺技术在碳捕获方面已经得到了很好的应用，但存在一些局限性，包括热再生、胺降解和胺蒸发带来的巨大能源成本。该项目将探索一种使用电化学电池运行二氧化碳捕获循环的新兴方法。这种方法有望提高二氧化碳捕获的能源效率，并易于与电网集成，但这种应用的材料开发仍处于起步阶段。在这个项目中，我们将开发新的电极材料，并使用电化学和气体吸附方法测试它们的电化学二氧化碳捕获性能。我们的目标材料具有(i)大的二氧化碳吸附能力，（ii）在现实条件下稳定的循环性能，以及（iii）通过电化学摆动吸附的低再生能量。我们将进一步使用光谱学来理解支撑电化学捕获过程的分子过程。这个项目可以改进材料，帮助减少温室气体排放。

Carbon dioxide capture and storage is an important greenhouse gas mitigation technology that can help tackle the climate crisis. Traditional amine technology is well established for carbon capture, but has limitations that include, large energy costs from thermal regeneration, amine degradation and amine evaporation. This project will explore an emerging approach that uses an electrochemical cell to run the carbon dioxide capture cycle. The promise of this approach is a higher energy efficiency for carbon dioxide capture, and facile integration with the electric grid, but materials development for this application remains in its infancy. In this project we will develop new electrode materials and test their performance for electrochemical carbon dioxide capture using electrochemistry and gas adsorption methods. We are targeting materials with (i) large carbon dioxide adsorption capacities, (ii) stable cycling performance under realistic conditions, and (iii) low regeneration energies via electrochemical swing adsorption. We will further use spectroscopy to understand the molecular processes that underpin the electrochemical capture process. This project can lead to improved materials that can help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.