Engineered porous materials: computational design and materials production

2016年10月5日，加拿大批准了《巴黎协议》，承诺我们在2030年之前将温室气体排放量减少到2005年的三分之二，几乎不到十年的时间。向可再生能源经济转型不仅需要政治意愿和财政投资，还需要技术解决方案。这是一个众所周知的问题，风/太阳产生的能量不一定与需求相吻合。能源储存是可再生经济的关键推动因素，因为储存的能源可以在高需求/低产出时期支持电网，从而避免电力短缺。电化学储能很有前景，因为它在地理上是中性的，本质上是安全的，高效，而且潜在的低成本；然而，实现这一前景需要大量的努力和技术开发。为了最大限度地提高效率、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、产品、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几十年来一直在研究多孔介质，但对多孔电极的研究需要一种明显不同的方法。拟议的研究计划将用更新、更合适的工具来解决这一需求，这些工具特别适合于电极。这些将包括创新的计算工具，如了解电极材料内活性物质运动的孔尺度模拟，研究电极材料3D体积图像(即CAT扫描)的新型图像分析工具，以及提供对材料结构的控制的制造技术，使来自建模和成像的信息能够指导生产。总体而言，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。这将为电化学储能设备提供所需的动力，使其在经济上与目前基于石油的基础设施竞争。

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.