Organized Nanomaterials for Enhanced Understanding and Performance of Electrochemical Devices

这项研究的重点是开发一系列新的纳米材料，这些材料具有许多有用的应用，包括清洁能源转换和储存技术（例如，燃料电池、涉及CO2转化的电解电池、氧化还原液流电池等），重要的子目标是以高度组织的方式制造这些电池，使得它们的性能可以更好地利用并且也更容易地评估。在这项研究计划的一个主要分支中， 我们将继续开发令人兴奋的高表面积碳纳米材料（纳米多孔碳支架，NCS）的新家族。这些是Birss小组最近开发的自支撑导电膜，含有高度有序和完全互连的纳米级孔，具有类似于蜂窝的结构。我们的研究的一个关键目标将是确定最佳NCS孔径和厚度，其导致在电化学电池操作期间使溶液和气相反应物快速且容易地移动通过孔方面的最小困难，同时仍然保持用作能量转换/存储应用中的催化剂所需的非常高的真实的表面积。使用有机化学，NCS材料的内表面将被改性，以使催化纳米颗粒能够附着到NCS表面用于各种应用，并影响NCS的几个其他性质，包括水润湿它们的表面的程度。将进行这些修改以更好地理解和改善碳载体在燃料电池、电容器和电池中遇到的条件下的性能，并与超光滑碳表面进行比较。拟议研究的另一部分补充了我们小组的其他研究，其中金属纳米颗粒，如铂或微小的纳米颗粒，其核心内有一种金属，薄壳层中有第二种金属，正在开发用于广泛的催化剂应用。我们相信NCS表面上的官能团将直接影响制造过程中这些类型的NP的大小和分布。最后，我们将尝试在NCS的内表面涂上一层纳米催化氧化膜，并测试这种复合纳米材料在室温、水溶液电解槽中将CO2转化为有用产物的能力。捕获的CO2的转化/利用是用于减少CO2向大气中的排放的关键方法。 除了采用最先进的仪器和工具，可用于这项研究，这些项目将有助于培训多达20名学生在五年以上的这些领域至关重要的加拿大和世界。

This research is focused on the development of a range of new nanomaterials that have many useful applications, including for clean energy conversion and storage technologies (e.g., fuel cells, electrolysis cells involving CO2 conversion, redox flow batteries, etc), with an important sub-goal being to fabricate these in a highly organized fashion so that their properties can be better exploited and also more easily evaluated. In one main branch of this research program, we will continue to develop an exciting new family of high surface area carbon nanomaterials (nanoporous carbon scaffolds, NCS). These are self-supported, conducting membranes, developed recently in the Birss group, that contain highly ordered and fully interconnected nano-sized pores, with a structure similar to a honeycomb. A key goal of our research will be to determine the optimum NCS pore size and thickness that results in the least difficulty in terms of moving solution and gas-phase reactants quickly and easily through the pores during electrochemical cell operation, while still retaining the very high real surface area required for use as a catalyst in energy conversion/storage applications. Using organic chemistry, the internal surfaces of the NCS materials will be modified to enable the attachment of catalytic nanoparticles to the NCS surface for various applications and to influence several other properties of the NCS, including how well water wets' their surfaces. These modifications will be made to better understand and improve the performance of carbon supports under the conditions encountered within fuel cells, capacitors and batteries, with comparisons to be made with ultra-smooth carbon surfaces as well. Another part of the proposed research complements other research in our group, in which metal nanoparticles, such as platinum or tiny nanoparticles with one metal inside their core and a second metal in a thin shell layer, are being developed for a wide range of catalyst applications. We believe the functional groups on the NCS surface will directly influence the size and distribution of these types of NPs during fabrication. Finally, we will attempt to coat the internal surfaces of the NCS with an ultrathin catalytic oxide film and test this composite nanomaterial for its ability to convert CO2 to useful products in a room temperature, aqueous, electrolysis cell. The conversion/utilization of captured CO2 is a key approach being used to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. In addition to employing the most advanced instruments and tools available for this research, these projects will serve to train up to 20 students over five years in these areas of critical importance to Canada and the world.