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，但具有成本效益和可扩展的环境和光电化学能量转换和存储技术。这是通过水溶液工艺工程和纳米材料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（吸附-还原-光催化）纳米复合结构的工程设计，固定或消除工业废水中的有毒污染物（例如砷和硒）。这种新颖的环境技术将使我们能够可持续地开发自然资源，并使加拿大在清洁资源开采/加工实践和可出口创新方面处于世界领先地位。该计划的第二个重点是纳米结构介孔电极和光催化剂的制造（水合成和电泳沉积），用于锂离子储能或水消毒/分裂（制氢）应用。锂离子电池（LIBs）是各种便携式电子产品爆炸式增长的背后——2016年是LIBs商业化25周年，随着社会向交通运输（EV）电气化和太阳能衍生电力使用和存储的转变，它们现在被称为推动我们的转变。这代表着巨大的增长潜力，因此，能源材料加工领域的研究具有高度的战略意义，与国际前沿研究方向保持一致。拟议的项目将为HQP在先进材料加工方面的培训提供肥沃的土壤，使他们成为明天的创新者。纳米结构材料在光转换和锂离子电池存储系统中作为电极提供了优越的功能，但它们的性能和制造都需要进一步改进。为此，该计划将研究新的高能和功率正极材料，如LiCoPO4和石墨烯复合材料，一方面用于以更低的成本制造行驶里程更长的电动汽车锂电池；另一方面，探索开发全（UV-Vis-NIR）光谱TiO2-Cu2ZnSnS4 （CZTS）光催化剂，该催化剂由丰富且无毒的元素制成，可用于水净化或通过水的光解制氢。因此，该计划侧重于水/环境保护和绿色能源技术，这是我们可持续未来的核心。

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, but cost-effective and scalable, environmental and photo-electrochemical energy conversion and storage technologies. This is approached via the innovative integration of aqueous solution process engineering and nanomaterials. There are two thrusts in the proposed research program. The first thrust is the development of altogether new environmental technologies for the immobilization or elimination of toxic pollutants (e.g. As and Se) from industrial effluents via the engineering of “core-shell” or multi-functional (adsorptive-reductive-photocatalytic) nanocomposite structures. Such novel environmental technology will enable the sustainable exploitation of our natural resources and position Canada as world leader in clean resource extraction/processing practices and exportable innovations. The second thrust of this program is focusing on fabrication (aqueous synthesis and electrophoretic deposition) of nanostructured mesoporous electrodes and photocatalysts for lithium-ion energy storage or water disinfection/splitting (hydrogen generation) applications. Li-ion batteries (LIBs) that are behind the explosive proliferation of all kind of portable electronics-2016 marks 25 years since the commercialization of LIBs, they are now called to power our shift as society towards electrification of transportation (EV) and solar energy-derived electricity use and storage. This represents a tremendous growth potential and as such research in this area of energy material processing is highly strategic, well aligned with international cutting edge research directions. The proposed program will provide a fertile ground for training HQP in advanced material processing enabling them to become tomorrow's innovators. Nanostructured materials offer superior functionalities as electrodes in photo-conversion and Li-ion battery storage systems but further improvements both in their performance and fabrication are needed. To this end the proposed program among other will investigate new high-energy and -power cathode materials, such as LiCoPO4 and graphene composites on one hand for building EV LIBs with longer driving range at lower cost; and on the other explore the development of full (UV-Vis-NIR) spectrum TiO2-Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) photocatalysts made from abundant and non-toxic elements that could find applications in water purification or in producing hydrogen via photo-splitting of water. As such the program focuses on water/environment protection and green energy technologies that are at the heart of our sustainable future.