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。你可能每天都会遇到的例子包括煎锅上的不粘涂层、太阳眼镜上的防刮涂层和窗户上的防水涂层。然而，表面改造是我们经济中更多部门不可或缺的一部分。纳米技术是现代计算机电路的核心，它将带来更多的产品，它被吹捧为跨越多个经济部门的潜在经济收益。利用这些产品的许多特性依赖于表面处理，如分子涂层，但这些涂层的质量是高度可变的。供应商之间以及不同批次的材料之间存在差异。拟议的研究计划将为材料生产商提供评估和控制其纳米材料分子涂层质量的手段。这项研究还将为学术界和工业界提供方法，增加可用于修饰纳米材料的化学物种的多样性。它还将使使用更广泛的可用和更容易处理的试剂成为可能。有了这些新方法和新材料，该计划将应用这些知识来提高清洁能源应用中电化学驱动催化过程中使用的纳米材料的能源效率和耐久性。人们正在寻求水的电解，将间歇性的能源转化为化学能。电解水产生的氢气可以储存、运输，并根据需要用于低温燃料电池。这个反应的另一个产物是氧气。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水电解大规模应用的一个问题。该计划将开发一系列的表面处理，以提高水电解的能源效率和纳米催化剂的耐久性。进一步的研究将扩展这方面的知识，以改善水电解，以及其他气体演化反应。这种表面处理的知识，增强了这些电化学驱动的催化过程，将扩展到低温燃料电池中的电催化剂。纳米催化剂和水电解槽和低温燃料电池催化剂层内的支持颗粒也将被调整，以提高气体和水运输效率的管理。这项研究将提高这些系统的使用寿命和能源效率。加拿大处于有利地位，可以利用拟议计划创造的基础知识。许多加拿大公司正在生产纳米材料，还有更多的公司正在将这些材料应用于包括水电解器和燃料电池在内的领域。

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.