New Multifunctional Thermoplastic Polymer Nanocomposites for Structural Power Materials, Towards Green Aviation

用于结构动力材料的新型多功能热塑性聚合物纳米复合材料，迈向绿色航空

• 批准号: 2889173
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2889173
• 关键词: New; Multifunctional; Thermoplastic; Polymer; Nanocomposites

The transport sector is a significant contributor to greenhouse gases, and electrification of these systems would undoubtedly help to decarbonize the atmosphere. This is where we enter the exciting field of 'Structural Power Composites' which act as both structural materials and energy storage devices. The Imperial College London Structural Power Composites group has already made significant progress in the development of structural supercapacitors. These typically utilize an electrolyte that is made by mixing an epoxy with an Ionic Liquid (IL), however, issues at the microstructural level persist whereby carbon fibers are being sheathed by the structural phase of the electrolyte. Improving the structural electrolyte is still one of the biggest challenges associated with the field. This is because materials with high ionic conductivity typically have poor mechanical performance and vice-versa, so it is difficult to obtain a good balance between the two.The primary aim of this research is to extend the work done on structural supercapacitors by incorporating thermoplastics (TPs) into the electrolyte with the ultimate goal being to improve both the mechanical and electrochemical performance of these devices. Other benefits of using TPs include: higher toughness, improved recyclability and higher chemical stability. Some of the questions that the project intends to answer are: What TPs are suitable to be used in structural electrolytes? Can the use of TPs offer benefits such as lighter-weight energy storage devices? Can structural supercapacitors be manufactured at a lower cost and at a larger scale using TPs in the electrolyte? Can we recycle TP-based structural electrolytes? The main strategies that will be employed are: i) blending TPs with ionic liquids or ii) backfilling porous TPs with liquid electrolytes like aqueous electrolytes, ionic liquids, lithium salts solutions. The first stage of the project will be to select suitable high-performance thermoplastics (HPTPs) based on a few criteria such as the 'glass transition temperature', 'melting temperature', and 'price per unit mass'. The objective will be to conduct solubility tests of these TPs in the ionic liquids, initially qualitatively by observing the behavior when mixing the two together and then quantitatively. The KAT polarity scale is essentially a system that depicts solvent properties using polarity, acidity, and basicity and can be used to quantify the solubility of a TP in an ionic liquid. These KAT parameters for HPTPs are not widely available in the literature and so this research project aims to find and publish them for the wider scientific community. After obtaining the KAT parameters for some common HPTPs, systematic work will be done to build, for the first time, bi-phasic phase diagrams for different HPTP/IL systems. These essentially show how different combinations of HPTPs and IL interact with each other. HPTPs are typically processed at high temperatures which could cause complications when blending the HPTP with the IL, due to possible degradation of the latter. It will therefore be important to study the processing window of the shortlisted HPTPs experimentally, to narrow down the search for the optimal structural electrolyte. After finalizing the possible candidates of HPTPs and ILs, the next objective will be to optimize the structure of the HPTP and IL blends such that they are thoroughly mixed and interconnected. The morphologies obtained will be studied by 'Scanning Electron Microscopy' and the full mechanical and electrochemical properties of the structural electrolyte will be investigated. In conclusion, opening the research on structural electrolytes to TPs could potentially revolutionize the field, bringing us one step closer to greener, more sustainable aviation.

交通运输部门是温室气体的重要贡献者，这些系统的电气化无疑有助于大气脱碳。这就是我们进入“结构动力复合材料”这一激动人心的领域的地方，它既可以作为结构材料，也可以作为储能装置。伦敦帝国学院结构动力复合材料小组已经在结构超级电容器的开发方面取得了重大进展。这些通常使用通过将环氧树脂与离子液体（IL）混合而制成的电解质，然而，微观结构水平上的问题仍然存在，碳纤维被电解质的结构相包裹。改进结构电解质仍然是该领域面临的最大挑战之一。这是因为具有高离子电导率的材料通常机械性能较差，反之亦然，因此很难在两者之间获得良好的平衡。这项研究的主要目的是通过掺入热塑性塑料来扩展在结构超级电容器方面所做的工作（ TP）进入电解质，最终目标是提高这些设备的机械和电化学性能。使用 TP 的其他好处包括：更高的韧性、更高的可回收性和更高的化学稳定性。该项目打算回答的一些问题是：哪些TP适合用于结构电解质？使用TP可以带来诸如重量更轻的储能设备之类的好处吗？能否在电解质中使用 TP 以更低的成本和更大规模地制造结构超级电容器？我们可以回收TP基结构电解质吗？将采用的主要策略是：i）将TP与离子液体混合或ii）用液体电解质（例如水性电解质、离子液体、锂盐溶液）回填多孔TP。该项目的第一阶段将根据“玻璃化转变温度”、“熔化温度”和“单位质量价格”等一些标准选择合适的高性能热塑性塑料（HPTP）。目的是对这些 TP 在离子液体中进行溶解度测试，首先通过观察将两者混合在一起时的行为进行定性测试，然后进行定量测试。 KAT 极性标度本质上是一个使用极性、酸度和碱度描述溶剂性质的系统，可用于量化 TP 在离子液体中的溶解度。 HPTP 的这些 KAT 参数在文献中并未广泛提供，因此本研究项目旨在为更广泛的科学界找到并发布它们。在获得一些常见 HPTP 的 KAT 参数后，将进行系统工作，首次构建不同 HPTP/IL 系统的双相相图。这些本质上显示了 HPTP 和 IL 的不同组合如何相互作用。 HPTP 通常在高温下加工，在将 HPTP 与 IL 混合时，由于后者可能发生降解，可能会导致复杂情况。因此，通过实验研究入围的 HPTP 的加工窗口非常重要，以缩小最佳结构电解质的搜索范围。在最终确定 HPTP 和 IL 的可能候选方案后，下一个目标将是优化 HPTP 和 IL 混合物的结构，使它们充分混合和互连。获得的形态将通过“扫描电子显微镜”进行研究，并将研究结构电解质的完整机械和电化学性能。总之，向 TP 开放结构电解质的研究可能会彻底改变该领域，使我们更接近更绿色、更可持续的航空。