In situ methods and new materials for study of electrochemical energy storage processes

我们加拿大人，乃至全世界人民，都处在一个十字路口。在未来几年，计划中的大规模投资将使社会越来越多地得到太阳能等可再生能源的支持，对加拿大人来说更重要的是风能。这些丰富的无污染能源将要求全社会进行一场被称为电气化的变革，即电力几乎用于所有需要能源的活动。对这一非凡未来的警告是，我们需要发展大规模储存电能的能力，因为生产与需求无关，也就是说，风的吹拂独立于我们的能源需求。因此，我们的研究项目的长期愿景是开发出兼具动力性能和长使用寿命以及低财务和环境成本的电池。为此，我们专注于开发模型以及测试基于分子构建块的新架构。***一个突破性的进步，可能是这个提议的潜在结果，是高保真度数值模型的发展。这些模型将被证明在虚拟的“假设”电池设计和寿命预测中是无价的。为了达到这一崇高的目标，需要高保真度的输入参数，随着两种主要的新分析技术的成熟，这些参数应该成为可用的。***可能同样重要的进步是高效分子基电池的发展。这是因为它们可以基于（生物）可再生能源，它们可以与其他比锂更容易获得的离子一起使用，并且它们具有显著的加工灵活性。为了实现这一目标，我们提出了一套独特的分子结构，将导电聚合物与高压电荷存储分子结合起来。***总的来说，拟议的工作可以说是过去25年来最重要的能源政策变化，通过为加拿大电池行业提供新的科学和训练有素的人才，这与我们成功的全社会电气化直接相关。＊＊＊＊＊

We Canadians, and indeed all the people in the world are at a crossroad. Over the coming years, planned massive investments will allow society to be increasingly supported by renewable energies like solar, and more importantly for Canadians, wind. These abundant nonpolluting energies will require a society wide transformation known as electrification where electricity is used in virtually all energy requiring endeavors. The caveat of this remarkable future is that we need to develop an ability to store electric energy on a massive scale, since production is not linked to demand, i.e. the wind blows independently of our energy needs. Our research program's long-term vision is therefore to develop batteries that combine power performance and long operational lifetime with low financial and environmental costs.***To this end, we focus on developing models as well as testing new architectures based on molecular building blocks. ***A groundbreaking advance, that could potentially be the outcome of this proposal is the development of numerical models with high fidelity. These models would prove invaluable in virtual “what-if” battery design and longevity predictions. To reach this lofty goal requires high fidelity input parameters that should become available as two major new analytical techniques mature from this proposal. ***An advance of potentially similar importance would be the development of efficient molecular based batteries. This is due the facts that they can be based on (bio) renewables, they may be used with other more readily available ions than Li, and they have significant processing flexibility. To advance towards this objective, we propose a set of unique molecular structures that combine conductive polymers with high voltage charge storage molecules.***Overall, the proposed work serves arguably the most important energy policy changes of the last 25 years, by providing new science and highly trained personnel to Canada's battery industry that is directly tied to our successful society wide electrification. *****