Engineered porous materials: computational design and materials production

2016年10月5日，加拿大批准了《巴黎雅阁》，承诺到2030年将温室气体排放量减少到2005年水平的三分之二。向可再生能源经济过渡不仅需要政治意愿和财政投资，还需要技术解决方案。众所周知的问题是，风能/太阳能产生的能量不一定与需求相符。储能是可再生经济的关键推动因素，因为存储的能量可以在高需求/低生产期间支持电网，从而避免电力短缺。电化学储能是有前途的，因为它的地理中立，本质上是安全的，高效的，潜在的低成本;然而，实现这一承诺将需要大量的努力和技术开发。为了最大限度地提高其效率，耐用性和性能，工程师必须设计多孔电极，以促进化学反应物，产物，电子，离子和热量的轻松移动。尽管对石油开采和含水层管理感兴趣的地球科学家已经对多孔介质进行了数十年的研究，但对多孔电极的研究需要一种截然不同的方法。拟议的研究计划将通过更新，更合适的工具来满足这一需求，特别是适合电极的工具。这些将包括创新的计算工具，如孔隙尺度模拟，以了解电极材料内反应物质的运动，研究电极材料的3D体积图像（即“猫扫描”）的新型图像分析工具，以及提供对材料结构控制的制造技术，这允许来自建模和成像的信息指导生产。总的来说，该计划旨在制造更有效的电极，性能更好，因此更具成本效益。这将为电化学能量存储设备提供动力，使其在经济上与当前的石油基础设施竞争。

On October 5th, 2016, Canada ratified the Paris Accord, committing us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 2/3 our 2005 levels by 2030, barely a decade away. Transitioning to a renewable energy economy will require not only political will and financial investment, but also technological solutions. It is a well-known problem that energy produced by wind/sun does not necessarily coincide with demand. Energy storage is a key enabler for a renewable economy since the stored energy can support the grid in periods of high-demand/low-production, thus avoiding power-shortages. Electrochemical energy storage is promising since it's geographically neutral, inherently safe, highly efficient, and potentially low cost; however, realizing this promise will require substantial effort and technology development. To maximize their efficiency, durability, and performance, engineers must design the porous electrodes to promote easy movement of chemical reactants, products, electrons, ions and heat. Though porous media have been studied for decades by geoscientists interested in oil recovery and aquifer management, the study of porous electrodes requires a significantly different approach. The proposed research program will address this need with newer, more appropriate tools, specifically suited to electrodes. These will include innovating computational tools such as pore scale simulations to understand the movement of the reactive species within the electrode materials, novel image analysis tools to study 3D volumetric images (i.e. ‘cat scans') of electrode materials, and manufacturing techniques that provide control over the structure of the material, which allows information from the modeling and imaging to guide the production. Overall, this program aims to make more effective electrodes that perform better and therefore more cost effective. This will provide electrochemical energy storage devices with the impetus they need to become economically competitive with the current petroleum based infrastructure.