Advanced environmental and energy material processing

拟议的研究计划旨在加速“先进环境和能源材料加工”领域的发现，最终目标是开发新一代创新，但具有成本效益和可扩展的环境和太阳能转换和存储技术，以实现绿色和可持续的未来。这是通过水处理工程和纳米材料原理的创新整合来实现的。拟议的研究计划有两个重点。第一个重点是开发全新的环境技术，通过核-壳或多功能纳米复合结构的工程设计，从工业废水中固定/消除有毒污染物（例如砷和硒）。该计划的第二个重点是制造（水合成和电泳沉积）纳米结构介孔电极薄膜，用于染料敏化太阳能转换或锂离子储能应用。提出的研究的潜在统一主题是纳米晶颗粒的溶液合成和沉积/加工。纳米结构材料在光伏和储能系统中作为电极提供了优越的功能，但其性能和制造还需要进一步改进。本文提出的高通量低温制造工艺的发展有可能导致成本降低和技术突破。该计划下的拟议研究活动处于当前全球先进环境和能源材料研究工作的前沿，因此为尖端培训提供了肥沃的土壤。在五年的时间里，总共将有20名高素质的年轻研究人员参与该项目。最后，环境和能源技术对加拿大具有战略重要性，因此提出的研究计划具有很强的时效性和相关性。

The proposed research program aims to accelerate discovery in the area of "advanced environmental and energy material processing" with the ultimate goal of developing new generation innovative, but cost-effective and scalable, environmental and solar energy conversion and storage technologies for a green and sustainable future. This is approached via the innovative integration of aqueous process engineering and nanomaterial principles. There are two thrusts in the proposed research program. The first thrust is the development of altogether new environmental technologies for the immobilization/elimination of toxic pollutants (e.g. As and Se) from industrial effluents via the engineering of core-shell or multi-functional nanocomposite structures. The second thrust of this program is focusing on fabrication (aqueous synthesis and electrophoretic deposition) of nanostructured mesoporous electrode films for either dye-sensitized solar energy conversion or lithium-ion energy storage applications. The underlying unifying theme of the proposed research is the solution synthesis and deposition/processing of nanocrystalline particulates. Nanostructured materials offer superior functionalities as electrodes both in photovoltaics and energy storage systems but further improvement in their performance and fabrication are needed. Development of high throughput low temperature fabrication processes as proposed here has the potential to lead to cost reduction and technological breakthroughs. The proposed research activities under this program are at the forefront of current global advanced environmental and energy material research efforts hence constitute a fertile ground for cutting-edge training. In total up to 20 highly qualified young researchers will be involved with this program over its five-year duration. Finally environmental and energy technologies are of strategic importance to Canada making the proposed research program highly timely and relevant.