炭材料在能量储存与转化中的应用

通过评述炭材料在能量储存和转化领域的研究和发展现状,如:炭材料是燃料电池重要的催化剂载体、双极板和气体扩散层材料,也是太阳能电池构建碳-硅PN结、全碳PN结以及透明导电膜的核心材料,锂离子电池和超级电容器的关键电极材料.另外,炭材料在气体存储、蓄能蓄热、核能、风能等领域也具有重要的应用.认为:炭材料形态结构多样性及其所具有的诸多优异物理和化学特性,是其在能量储存和转化领域中广泛应用的根本.提出:炭材料必须向纳米化、有序化、复合化方向发展,实现功能炭材料的可控制备、纳米结构调控、复合材料的优化设计与制备对能量转化和存储器件升级,炭材料必将获得更加广阔的发展和应用空间.     

Carbon nanomaterials for advanced energy conversion and storage

It is estimated that the world will need to double its energy supply by 2050. Nanotechnology has opened up new frontiers in materials science and engineering to meet this challenge by creating new materials, particularly carbon nanomaterials, for efficient energy conversion and storage. Comparing to conventional energy materials, carbon nanomaterials possess unique size-/surface-dependent (e.g., morphological, electrical, optical, and mechanical) properties useful for enhancing the energy-conversion and storage performances. During the past 25 years or so, therefore, considerable efforts have been made to utilize the unique properties of carbon nanomaterials, including fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, as energy materials, and tremendous progress has been achieved in developing high-performance energy conversion (e.g., solar cells and fuel cells) and storage (e.g., supercapacitors and batteries) devices. This article reviews progress in the research and development of carbon nanomaterials during the past twenty years or so for advanced energy conversion and storage, along with some discussions on challenges and perspectives in this exciting field.     

Integrated solar capacitors for energy conversion and storage

Solar energy is one of the most popular clean energy sources and is a promising alternative to fulfill the increasing energy demands of modern society.Solar cells have long been under intensive research attention for harvesting energy from sunlight with a high power-conversion efficiency and low cost.However,the power outputs of photovoltaic devices suffer from fluctuations due to the intermittent instinct of the solar radiation.Integrating solar cells and energystorage devices as self-powering systems may solve this problem through the simultaneous storage of the electricity and manipulation of the energy output.This review summarizes the research progress in the integration of new-generation solar cells with supercapacitors,with emphasis on the structures,materials,performance,and new design features.The current challenges and future prospects are discussed with the aim of expanding research and development in this field.     

Controlled phase separation for efficient energy conversion in dye/polymer blend bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells

Low-cost photovoltaic energy conversion using conjugated polymers has achieved great improvement due to the invention of organic bulk heterojunction, in which the nanoscale phase separation of electron donor and acceptor favors realizing efficient charge separation and collection. We investigated the polymer photovoltaic cells using N, N′-bis(1-ethylpropyl)-3,4,9,10-perylene bis(tetracarboxyl diimide)/poly(3-hexyl thiophene) blend as an active layer. It is found that processing conditions for the blend films have major effects on its morphology and hence the energy conversion efficiency of the resulting devices. By optimizing the processing conditions, the sizes of donor/acceptor phase separation can be adjusted for realizing efficient charge separation and collection. The overall energy conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic cell processed with optimized conditions increases by nearly 40% compared to the normally spin-coated and annealed cell.     

Nanostructured materials for advanced energy conversion and storage devices

New materials hold the key to fundamental advances in energy conversion and storage, both of which are vital in order to meet the challenge of global warming and the finite nature of fossil fuels. Nanomaterials in particular offer unique properties or combinations of properties as electrodes and electrolytes in a range of energy devices. This review describes some recent developments in the discovery of nanoelectrolytes and nanoelectrodes for lithium batteries, fuel cells and supercapacitors. The advantages and disadvantages of the nanoscale in materials design for such devices are highlighted.     

Hybrid nanocomposite materials for energy storage and conversion applications

Functional Hybrid materials based on conducting polymers and inorganic photo-electroactive species provide a wealth of opportunities for the development of novel materials with improved properties. Polyoxometalates are one type of well-known inorganic species with most interesting photo-electrochemical activity. They are perfect models for nanometer-sized oxide quantum-dots both concerning structure, topology and electrochemical and photochemical properties. Yet, they have not been applied as materials because of their molecular nature (i.e., soluble in most solvents or electrolytes). In our group we have recently developed a research line dealing with the integration of these fascinating clusters in conducting polymer matrices to yield functional hybrid materials. Our past emphasis was on electroactivity for energy-storage applications but these materials can also be used, as it is shown here, for photoelectrochemical applications.     

Hierarchical graphene foam-based phase change materials with enhanced thermal conductivity and shape stability for efficient solar-to-thermal energy conversion and storage

Recently,graphene foam (GF) with a three-dimensional (3D) interconnected network produced by template-directed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been used to prepare composite phase-change materials (PCMs) with enhanced thermal conductivity.However,the pore size of GF is as large as hundreds of micrometers,resulting in a remarkable thermal resistance for heat transfer from the PCM inside the large pores to the GF strut walls.In this study,a novel 3D hierarchical GF (HGF) is obtained by filling the pores of GF with hollow graphene networks.The HGF is then used to prepare a paraffin wax (PW)-based composite PCM.The thermal conductivity of the PW/HGF composite PCM is 87％ and 744％ higher than that of the PW/GF composite PCM and pure PW,respectively.The PW/HGF composite PCM also exhibits better shape stability than the PW/GF composite PCM,negligible change in the phase-change temperature,a high thermal energy storage density that is 95％ of pure PW,good thermal reliability,and chemical stability with cycling for 100 times.More importantly,PW/HGF composite PCM allows light-driven thermal energy storage with a high light-to-thermal energy conversion and storage efficiency,indicating its great potential for applications in solar-energy utilization and storage.     

Plasmonic-metal nanostructures for efficient conversion of solar to chemical energy

Recent years have seen a renewed interest in the harvesting and conversion of solar energy. Among various technologies, the direct conversion of solar to chemical energy using photocatalysts has received significant attention. Although heterogeneous photocatalysts are almost exclusively semiconductors, it has been demonstrated recently that plasmonic nanostructures of noble metals (mainly silver and gold) also show significant promise. Here we review recent progress in using plasmonic metallic nanostructures in the field of photocatalysis. We focus on plasmon-enhanced water splitting on composite photocatalysts containing semiconductor and plasmonic-metal building blocks, and recently reported plasmon-mediated photocatalytic reactions on plasmonic nanostructures of noble metals. We also discuss the areas where major advancements are needed to move the field of plasmon-mediated photocatalysis forward.     

Counterbalancing the interplay between electrochromism and energy storage for efficient electrochromic devices

With the emerging demand of multifunctional optoelectronic devices, the integration of electrochromism and energy storage functionalities within a single platform has become a research frontier in the electrochromic community. However, the conventional electrochromic function is inherently contradictory to the energy storage function in electrochromic devices. In this review, we firstly introduced the working principles and device configurations of the rudimentary electrochromic energy storage devices (EESDs), where the origin of the contradiction between electrochromic and energy storage functionalities is comprehensively introduced. We then reviewed the current status and applications of EESDs, where we hope to clearly reveal the developing trends of the EESDs. Finally, we proposed our perspectives on the design strategy of zinc anode-based electrochromic devices for overcoming the contradiction between electrochromism and energy storage of EESDs.     

Freestanding nanosheets of 1T-2H hybrid MoS_2 as electrodes for efficient sodium storage

Molybdenum disulfide(MoS₂) is a promising electrode material for sodium-ion batteries as it offers a large capacity through a distinct conversion reaction.However,the electrochemical potential of MoS₂ is often restrained by the poor conductivity as the dominant 2 H phase is a semiconductor while the metallic1 T phase is thermodynamically unstable.In this work,we report a hybrid design and material preparation of freestanding nanosheets of MoS₂ composed of both 1 T and 2 H phases based on mild hydrothermal reaction.The introduction of the metallic 1 T-MoS₂ phase into 2 H-MoS₂ and their intimate hybridization enable a significant improvement in electronic conductivity,while the freestanding architecture avoids possible electrochemical aggregation.When used as electrodes for sodium storage,such a hybrid MoS₂ affords a high capacity of~500 mA h g^-1 at 0.5 A g^-1 after 300 cycles,and retains capacity of~200 mA h g^-1 at a high current rate of 4 A g^-1,thus demonstrating their potential in high-performance battery applications.     

Role of PCM based nanofluids for energy efficient cool thermal storage system

This present study presents the solidification behavior of water based nanofluid phase change material encapsulated in a spherical container. The nanofluid phase change material (NFPCM) was prepared by dispersing the multi wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) with volume fractions of 0.15%, 0.3%, 0.45%, and 0.6% in de-ionized (DI) water as the base phase change material. The solidification experiments were conducted with DI water and the NFPCM and maximum reductions of 14% and 20.1% were observed in the solidification time with the NFPCMs at surrounding bath temperature of −9 °C and −12 °C respectively. The presence of MWCNT also acted as nucleating agent that caused appreciable reduction in the subcooling. The enhanced thermal transport properties of the NFPCM are very useful to operate the cool thermal energy storage (CTES) system at higher operating temperature of the secondary refrigerant. It is predicted that there is a possible energy saving potential of approximately 6–9% in the CTES using the NFPCMs.     

Low Li ion diffusion barrier on low-crystalline FeOOH nanosheets and high performance of energy storage

Nano Research - To obtain symmetric supercapacitors (SCs) with high energy density, it is critical to fabricate an electrode with wide potential window and excellent capacitive performance. Herein,...     

The facile synthesis of nickel silicide nanobelts and nanosheets and their application in electrochemical energy storage

Ni silicides in the form of nanobelts and nanosheets were synthesized for the first time based on the chemical reaction of Ni substrate with SiHCl(3) under H(2) atmosphere at 900?°C. Their morphological, structural and compositional features were characterized in detail using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction. It was found that the nanobelts, 120-180?nm in thickness and 1-5?μm in width, comprise a single Ni(3)Si phase and the nanosheets 20-80?nm in thickness consist of Ni(3)Si and Ni(31)Si(12), which is influenced by the concentration ratio of SiHCl(3) to H(2). Moreover, the potential application of these Ni silicides in electrochemical energy storage was also investigated. The results indicate that the nanosheets have excellent electrochemical performance when used as anode material for high energy density lithium ion batteries: a reversible capacity of more than 540?mA?h?g(-1) can be maintained even for the 20th cycle in a standard Li(+) half-cell.     

2D and 3D photonic crystal materials for photocatalysis and electrochemical energy storage and conversion

This perspective reviews recent advances in inverse opal structures, how they have been developed, studied and applied as catalysts, catalyst support materials, as electrode materials for batteries, water splitting applications, solar-to-fuel conversion and electrochromics, and finally as photonic photocatalysts and photoelectrocatalysts. Throughout, we detail some of the salient optical characteristics that underpin recent results and form the basis for light-matter interactions that span electrochemical energy conversion systems as well as photocatalytic systems. Strategies for using 2D as well as 3D structures, ordered macroporous materials such as inverse opals are summarized and recent work on plasmonic–photonic coupling in metal nanoparticle-infiltrated wide band gap inverse opals for enhanced photoelectrochemistry are provided.