Tuning the Surface Chemistry of Structured Materials for Enhanced Performance

表面处理被广泛用于调整材料的性能。你每天可能会遇到的例子包括平底锅上的不粘涂层，太阳眼镜上的防刮涂层，以及窗户上的防水涂层。然而，表面改性对我们经济的更多部门来说是不可或缺的。纳米技术是现代计算机电路的核心，它将提供更多的产品，它被吹捧为多个经济部门的潜在经济效益。利用其中许多产品的性能依赖于表面处理，如分子涂层，但这些涂层的质量差异很大。供应商之间以及不同批次的材料之间存在差异。 拟议的研究计划将使材料生产商能够评估和控制其纳米材料上的分子涂层的质量。这项研究还将为学术界和工业界提供方法，增加可用于修饰其纳米材料的化学物种的多样性。它还将使更广泛的可获得和更容易处理的试剂的使用。配备了这些新的方法和材料，拟议的计划将应用这些知识来提高清洁能源应用中用于电化学驱动催化过程的纳米材料的能效和耐用性。 人们正在寻求将水的电解法将间歇性能源转化为化学能。水电解产生的氢气可以按需储存、运输和使用，以运行低温燃料电池。这个反应的另一种产物是氧气。其生产的能源效率低于氢气生产，这降低了水电解的整体效率。电催化剂的降解也是更大范围实施水电解的一个令人关注的问题。 拟议的计划将开发一系列表面处理，以提高水电解的能效及其纳米催化剂的耐用性。进一步的研究将把这一知识扩展到改进水电解以及其他气体析出反应。这种表面处理强化这些电化学驱动的催化过程的知识将扩展到低温燃料电池中的电催化剂。水电解槽和低温燃料电池催化层中的纳米催化剂和支撑颗粒也将进行调整，以改善气体和水传输效率的管理。这项研究将提高这些系统的寿命和能效。加拿大处于有利地位，可以利用拟议计划创造的基本知识。许多加拿大公司正在生产纳米材料，更多的公司正在将这些材料用于包括电解水器和燃料电池在内的应用中。

Surface treatments are widely used to tune the properties of materials. Examples you may encounter on a daily basis include non-stick coatings on frying pans, scratch resistant coatings on sun glasses, and water repellent coatings on windows. Surface modifications are, however, integral to many more sectors of our economy. Nanotechnology, which lies at the heart of modern computer circuitry and which is poised to deliver an even larger array of products, has been touted for potential economic gains across multiple sectors of the economy. Harnessing the properties of many of these products relies on surface treatments such as molecular coatings, but quality of these coatings is highly variable. Variations persist between suppliers, as well as between different batches of material. The proposed research program will equip materials producers with the means to assess and control the quality of molecular coatings on their nanomaterials. This research will also provide the academic and industrial communities with methods that will increase the diversity of chemical species available to modify their nanomaterials. It will also enable the use of more widely available and easier to handle reagents. Equipped with these new methods and materials, the proposed program will apply this knowledge to improve the energy efficiency and durability of nanomaterials used for electrochemically driven catalytic processes in clean energy applications. The electrolysis of water is being sought to convert intermittent sources of energy into chemical energy. Hydrogen gas produced from water electrolysis can be stored, transported, and used on demand to operate low temperature fuel cells. The other product of this reaction is oxygen gas. Its production is less energy efficient than hydrogen gas production, which decreases the overall efficiency of water electrolysis. Also of concern for a wider scale implementation of water electrolysis is degradation of the electrocatalysts. The proposed program will develop a series of surface treatments to improve the energy efficiency of water electrolysis and the durability of its nano-catalysts. Further studies will extend this knowledge to improving water electrolysis, as well as other gas evolution reactions. This knowledge of surface treatments that enhance these electrochemically driven catalytic processes will be extended to electrocatalysts in low temperature fuel cells. The nano-catalysts and supporting particles within the catalyst layers of water electrolyzers and low temperature fuel cells will also be tuned for improved management of gas and water transport efficiencies. This research will improve the lifetime and energy efficiency of these systems. Canada is well positioned to take advantage of the fundamental knowledge created from the proposed program. Many Canadian companies are producing nanomaterials, and many more are utilizing these materials in applications that include water electrolyzers and fuel cells.