Novel Flexible Materials for Sustainable Energy Storage

用于可持续能源存储的新型柔性材料

• 批准号: 2717002
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Durham University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2717002
• 关键词: Novel; Flexible; Materials; Sustainable; Energy

The continued growth in world energy demand coupled with the increasingly pressing need to address climate change is rapidly driving a transition to renewable and sustainable energy sources. Renewable energy generation can often be intermittent and does not always align well with fluctuations in demand (for example, solar electricity generation can only occur during daylight, whereas peak energy demand may be in the evening) and there is a need for portable energy storage in applications as diverse as vehicles and personal electronics. Existing battery technologies have a limited lifetime, are difficult to recycle, and are produced from raw materials often mined unsustainably and with issues over the geopolitical location. Hence, there is a profound need for developing electrical energy storage with a long cycle life produced from sustainable materials by environmentally acceptable processes. The focus of this research project is to develop a highly performance-promising class of energy storage devices, known as supercapacitors for 'green' energy storage. Successful development of such devices can have a major impact on the rapid adoption of renewable energy and sustainable transport, ameliorating anthropogenic global climate change.Like batteries, supercapacitors are devices that store energy electrochemically. However, unlike the former, electrical charge is stored at the surface of the materials making up the electrodes within the device, rather than in the bulk. This has the twin advantages of allowing rapid charging/discharging and substantially reducing the rate at which their storage capacity degrades. However, they have a significant disadvantage in the amount of electrical energy which can be stored. Moreover, neither traditional battery nor supercapacitor materials have mechanical properties which enable them to be readily incorporated into durable wearable and flexible devices.To address these issues this project aims to develop novel materials and structures, particularly electrodes, which will enable the production of flexible supercapacitors with improved charge storage capacity produced from Earth-abundant and sustainably obtained materials through processes with limited environmental impact.Free-standing flexible composite electrodes will be created using a 'backbone' of carbon cloth onto which will be grown novel 'pseudocapacitive' materials. These materials will be chosen on the basis of an evaluation of their likelihood to combine high charge storage capacity (due to similarities with battery chemistry) with high cycle life and power output. Wet chemical techniques and hydrothermal growth will initially be to fabricate such electrodes and routes to sustainable production will be developed. Thorough characterization of their physical structure and chemical composition will be undertaken to understand appropriate structure-function relationships and optimize both materials and processing. The resulting electrodes will be assembled into flexible energy storage devices which will be evaluated for their electrochemical performance.

世界能源需求的持续增长加上解决气候变化的越来越紧迫的需求正在迅速推动过渡到可再生能源和可持续的能源。可再生能源的产生通常可能是间歇性的，并且并不总是与需求波动良好（例如，太阳能发电只能在白天发生，而峰值能量需求可能是在晚上），并且需要在像车辆和个人电子产品一样多样化的应用程序中的便携式储能。现有的电池技术的寿命有限，难以回收，并且是由原材料通常不可持续的，并且在地缘政治位置上存在问题。因此，迫切需要开发电源存储，并通过可持续可接受的过程从可持续材料产生的长周期寿命。该研究项目的重点是开发一类高性能的储能设备，被称为“绿色”储能的超级电容器。这种设备的成功开发可能会对可再生能源和可持续运输的快速采用，改善人为的全球气候变化产生重大影响。类似电池，超级电容器是在电化学上存储能源的设备。但是，与前者不同，电荷存储在构成设备内部电极的材料的表面，而不是在整体中。这具有允许快速充电/放电并大大降低其存储容量降低速度的双重优势。但是，它们在可以存储的电能量上具有明显的缺点。此外，传统的电池和超级电容器材料都没有机械性能，使它们能够轻松地将其纳入耐用且柔性的设备中。为了解决这些问题，该项目旨在开发新型材料和结构，尤其是电极，尤其是电极，可以通过限制了限制的Electial Extiment，可以使柔性的超级能力产生柔性的超级能力，从而可以从地球上获得的材料产生有限的环境。碳布的“骨干”将在其上种植小说“伪映射”材料。这些材料将根据对它们的可能性评估，以将高电荷存储能力（由于与电池化学的相似性）与高周期寿命和功率输出相结合。湿化学技术和水热生长最初将是制造此类电极和可持续生产的路线。将对其物理结构和化学成分进行彻底表征，以了解适当的结构功能关系并优化材料和加工。所得的电极将组装到柔性储能设备中，并将评估其电化学性能。