CHEPHYTSSU · Structural Engineering of 2D Atomic Planes towards Task-Specific, Freestanding Superstructures through Combined Physical-Chemical Pathway
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2016-07-25 → 2018-07-24
- EU contribution
- €195,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Structural Engineering of 2D Atomic Planes towards Task-Specific, Freestanding Superstructures through Combined Physical-Chemical Pathway
Proton exchange fuel cell technology was regarded as a promising energy conversion system, which can be operated in a more environmentally benign manner to convert chemical energy of sustainable fuels into electrical energy. The central core of the fuel cell system is the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) which is composed of two parts in terms of fuel electrodes (anode and cathode) and the electrolyte membrane sandwiched between them. For electrolyte membrane, its proton conductivity and selectivity are utmost parameters that not only link to membrane efficacy but also determine the final performance of fuel cell systems. The importance for innovation of highly selective and conductive proton exchange membranes is ever increasing. Currently, a fundamental and technological bottleneck is that most proton conductive materials still show much lower conductivity, below the general target of <10−2 S/cm for practical applications. The Manchester host group has first reported the 2D crystal-based proton transport properties, and pioneered the development of 2D proton conductive membrane. On this basis, we aim to innovate a new class of 2D polymer crystal based fast proton conductor, in which well aligned 3 Å channels were incorporated into in the 2D polymer crystals along the c-axis (as free proton transport pathway). Furthermore, we challenged ourselves to develop technologically feasible techniques that can integrate wafer scale CVD graphene or hBN with commercial MEA, and showcased them in a working fuel cell system. This can serve as the prototype devices that applied the state-of-the-art 2D proton conductors to overcome the “fuel crossover bottleneck issue” while negligible affecting proton conductivity. Further scale-up from this level should be straightforward and could enable significant new technologies for fuel cell related applications.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The research on 2D nanomaterials has boomed since the discovery of graphene by professors Geim and Novoselov in 2004. After a decade of steady development, the available library of 2D crystals is highly rich including graphene derivatives, hexagonal boron nitride, many chalcogenides and various oxides. However, the technological advances and urgent environmental and sustainable energy issues such as CO2 capture and separation, energy storage and conversion (photovoltatic system, supercapacitor etc) call for advanced materials with not only properties of individual layers but also new functionalities. Particularly, researches on superstructures with unique properties such as amphiphilicity still remain blank. Physically, it is now possible to create such hybrid superstructures by placing different 2D crystals on top of each other in a designed sequence; while engineering the 2D units through a chemical way endows a high flexibility in surface chemistry tailoring and increase the mechanical stability due to the strongly bonded interface. Taking these into consideration, here we propose a combined chemical-physical pathway to engineer task-specific, mechanically freestanding superstructures based on 2D atomic planes in a simple and scalable manner. Three new material concepts are proposed including amphiphilic superstructure (hydrophilic outer layer and hydrophobic inner layer), gas selective superstructure (CO2-phililc outer layer and gas shape selective inner layer) and flexible superstructure with outer layer functionalized with metal oxide nanoparticles confined in ordered mesopores and inner conductive graphene. The obtained superstructures with these structural features will be oriented environmental and sustainable energy issues such as CO2 capture and separation, water purification and flexible electrode. Finally, structure-performance relationship will be unraveled fundamentally.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER · ManchesterCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union