Novel Flexible Materials for Sustainable Energy Storage

世界能源需求的持续增长，加上应对气候变化的日益迫切的需要，正在迅速推动向可再生和可持续能源的过渡。可再生能源发电往往是间歇性的，并不总是与需求的波动保持良好的一致性(例如，太阳能发电只能在白天进行，而能源需求的高峰期可能在晚上)，在车辆和个人电子产品等各种应用中都需要便携式能量存储。现有的电池技术寿命有限，很难回收，而且生产的原材料往往是不可持续开采的，而且存在地缘政治位置的问题。因此，迫切需要通过环境可接受的工艺从可持续材料中生产出具有长循环寿命的电能存储。这一研究项目的重点是开发一种高性能前景的储能设备，即所谓的超级电容器，用于绿色储能。这类设备的成功开发可以对可再生能源的快速采用和可持续交通产生重大影响，改善人为的全球气候变化。与电池一样，超级电容器是通过电化学方式存储能量的设备。然而，与前者不同的是，电荷存储在构成器件内电极的材料的表面，而不是整体。这具有两个优点，即允许快速充电/放电和显著降低其存储容量退化的速率。然而，它们在可储存的电能数量上有一个显著的劣势。此外，传统的电池和超级电容器材料都没有机械性能，使得它们很容易被结合到耐用、可穿戴和灵活的设备中。为了解决这些问题，该项目旨在开发新的材料和结构，特别是电极，通过对环境影响有限的工艺，从地球上丰富的可持续获得的材料中生产出具有更高电荷存储能力的柔性超级电容器。将使用碳布的“主干”创建独立的柔性复合电极，在其上生长新的“伪电容”材料。这些材料的选择将基于对它们将高电荷存储容量(由于与电池化学相似)与高循环寿命和功率输出相结合的可能性的评估。湿化学技术和水热生长将首先制造这种电极，并将开发可持续生产的路线。将对它们的物理结构和化学成分进行彻底的表征，以了解适当的结构-功能关系，并优化材料和工艺。由此产生的电极将被组装成灵活的储能装置，并将对其电化学性能进行评估。

The continued growth in world energy demand coupled with the increasingly pressing need to address climate change is rapidly driving a transition to renewable and sustainable energy sources. Renewable energy generation can often be intermittent and does not always align well with fluctuations in demand (for example, solar electricity generation can only occur during daylight, whereas peak energy demand may be in the evening) and there is a need for portable energy storage in applications as diverse as vehicles and personal electronics. Existing battery technologies have a limited lifetime, are difficult to recycle, and are produced from raw materials often mined unsustainably and with issues over the geopolitical location. Hence, there is a profound need for developing electrical energy storage with a long cycle life produced from sustainable materials by environmentally acceptable processes. The focus of this research project is to develop a highly performance-promising class of energy storage devices, known as supercapacitors for 'green' energy storage. Successful development of such devices can have a major impact on the rapid adoption of renewable energy and sustainable transport, ameliorating anthropogenic global climate change.Like batteries, supercapacitors are devices that store energy electrochemically. However, unlike the former, electrical charge is stored at the surface of the materials making up the electrodes within the device, rather than in the bulk. This has the twin advantages of allowing rapid charging/discharging and substantially reducing the rate at which their storage capacity degrades. However, they have a significant disadvantage in the amount of electrical energy which can be stored. Moreover, neither traditional battery nor supercapacitor materials have mechanical properties which enable them to be readily incorporated into durable wearable and flexible devices.To address these issues this project aims to develop novel materials and structures, particularly electrodes, which will enable the production of flexible supercapacitors with improved charge storage capacity produced from Earth-abundant and sustainably obtained materials through processes with limited environmental impact.Free-standing flexible composite electrodes will be created using a 'backbone' of carbon cloth onto which will be grown novel 'pseudocapacitive' materials. These materials will be chosen on the basis of an evaluation of their likelihood to combine high charge storage capacity (due to similarities with battery chemistry) with high cycle life and power output. Wet chemical techniques and hydrothermal growth will initially be to fabricate such electrodes and routes to sustainable production will be developed. Thorough characterization of their physical structure and chemical composition will be undertaken to understand appropriate structure-function relationships and optimize both materials and processing. The resulting electrodes will be assembled into flexible energy storage devices which will be evaluated for their electrochemical performance.