Advanced environmental and energy material processing

拟议的研究计划旨在加快“先进环境和能源材料加工”领域的发现，最终目标是为绿色和可持续的未来开发新一代创新、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。这是通过水处理工程和纳米材料原理的创新集成来实现的。拟议的研究计划有两个要点。第一个重点是开发全新的环境技术，通过设计核壳或多功能纳米复合结构来固定/消除工业废水中的有毒污染物(如As和Se)。该计划的第二个重点是用于染料敏化太阳能转换或锂离子储能应用的纳米结构介孔电极膜的制备(水相合成和电泳沉积)。拟议研究的基本统一主题是纳米晶体颗粒的溶液合成和沉积/处理。纳米结构材料在光伏和储能系统中作为电极具有优异的功能，但在性能和制备方面还需要进一步的改进。这里提出的高通量低温制造工艺的开发有可能导致成本降低和技术突破。该计划下拟议的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。在这项为期五年的计划中，总共将有多达20名高素质的年轻研究人员参与其中。最后，环境和能源技术对加拿大具有战略重要性，使拟议的研究方案具有很强的及时性和相关性。

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.