Characterisation of Nanomaterials for Energy
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Materials
Abstract
Characterisation underpins all developments in new materials for energy where structural, chemical and electronic information across length scales is needed to develop a complete understanding of the relationship between materials properties, function and structure.
The renewal of the Oxford Materials Characterisation Platform grant focuses on the Characterisation of Nanoscale Materials for Energy to flexibly support an expanded team of skilled post-doctoral research scientists working collaboratively on the characterisation of a range of energy related materials related to the nuclear industry, catalysis and solar and fuel cell technology.
The platform grant renewal will support key staff between fixed term contacts to enable them to develop their independent research careers. In addition we will also use the platform grant to "pump prime" a number of evolving and strategically important interdisciplinary research directions.
We will develop correlated methods for the characterisation of energy materials using
1. All available signals arising from electron scattering in the (Scanning) Transmission Electron Microscope (S)TEM) for structural and chemical analysis at the atomic scale.
3. NanoSIMS in characterising nuclear materials degradation and polymeric materials.
4. Super resolution optical microscopy and spectroscopy, and correlating these with equivalent electron based methods in studies of photocatalysts
5. Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM) to understand model catalysts and ceramic membranes for fuel cells
6. Atom Probe Tomography (APT) for the characterisation of nanoparticles for catalysis
7. Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) to characterise long range strain and deformation in materials for comparison with atomistic data obtained from EM, APT and STM.
Overall, this platform grant renewal will sustain and startegically develop a research team which brings together all the relevant skills needed to support a comprehensive characterisation strategy, so that progress can be made towards materials characterisation of energy materials relevant to UK industry.
The renewal of the Oxford Materials Characterisation Platform grant focuses on the Characterisation of Nanoscale Materials for Energy to flexibly support an expanded team of skilled post-doctoral research scientists working collaboratively on the characterisation of a range of energy related materials related to the nuclear industry, catalysis and solar and fuel cell technology.
The platform grant renewal will support key staff between fixed term contacts to enable them to develop their independent research careers. In addition we will also use the platform grant to "pump prime" a number of evolving and strategically important interdisciplinary research directions.
We will develop correlated methods for the characterisation of energy materials using
1. All available signals arising from electron scattering in the (Scanning) Transmission Electron Microscope (S)TEM) for structural and chemical analysis at the atomic scale.
3. NanoSIMS in characterising nuclear materials degradation and polymeric materials.
4. Super resolution optical microscopy and spectroscopy, and correlating these with equivalent electron based methods in studies of photocatalysts
5. Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM) to understand model catalysts and ceramic membranes for fuel cells
6. Atom Probe Tomography (APT) for the characterisation of nanoparticles for catalysis
7. Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) to characterise long range strain and deformation in materials for comparison with atomistic data obtained from EM, APT and STM.
Overall, this platform grant renewal will sustain and startegically develop a research team which brings together all the relevant skills needed to support a comprehensive characterisation strategy, so that progress can be made towards materials characterisation of energy materials relevant to UK industry.
Planned Impact
Our underlying motivation in the research to be supported by this Platform Grant is that it should contribute to the development of advanced characterisation of energy materials in a cross disciplinary, multi technique approach.
This approach will have clear societal benefits, to users, and commercial benefits, to instrument manufacturers. The EPSRC Nanotechnology Grand Challenges include Energy as one theme to be pursued and accurate materials characterisation is a key component of this. The societal and economic impacts of new materials for energy are huge as highlighted in the 2010, RCUK Review of Energy. The specific economic impacts are in the manufacture of new materials and in the commercial development of improved instrumentation. The societal impact is equally large as energy is such a pervasive part of modern life.
We foresee four main classes of impact arising from our research:
1. An improved understanding of materials in the fields of catalysis, solar cells, nuclear materials and others based on more accurate characterisation of their structure and chemistry. In turn this may lead to materials with improved properties. Examples include catalytic selectivity or resistance to poisoning which require an understanding of atomic scale surface structures and higher efficiency solid state lighting which is critically dependent on defect structure and density.
2. The development of improved characterisation approaches correlated across different length scales. This will have direct impact on commercial instrument development and in industries where characterisation is a key part of process control and refinement.
3. The career development of skilled scientists for UK academia and industry who will be trained to the highest level and able to operate state of the art instrumentation. This has evident impact on the skills base of the UK workforce.
4. We have found that our work, in a field which impacts daily life can be disseminated in such as way as to excite the imagination of some of the best and brightest school students motivating them to choose to study mathematical and physical science subjects at A level and beyond. This helps to sustain a future supply of qualified people for a wide range of professions and industrial careers.
This approach will have clear societal benefits, to users, and commercial benefits, to instrument manufacturers. The EPSRC Nanotechnology Grand Challenges include Energy as one theme to be pursued and accurate materials characterisation is a key component of this. The societal and economic impacts of new materials for energy are huge as highlighted in the 2010, RCUK Review of Energy. The specific economic impacts are in the manufacture of new materials and in the commercial development of improved instrumentation. The societal impact is equally large as energy is such a pervasive part of modern life.
We foresee four main classes of impact arising from our research:
1. An improved understanding of materials in the fields of catalysis, solar cells, nuclear materials and others based on more accurate characterisation of their structure and chemistry. In turn this may lead to materials with improved properties. Examples include catalytic selectivity or resistance to poisoning which require an understanding of atomic scale surface structures and higher efficiency solid state lighting which is critically dependent on defect structure and density.
2. The development of improved characterisation approaches correlated across different length scales. This will have direct impact on commercial instrument development and in industries where characterisation is a key part of process control and refinement.
3. The career development of skilled scientists for UK academia and industry who will be trained to the highest level and able to operate state of the art instrumentation. This has evident impact on the skills base of the UK workforce.
4. We have found that our work, in a field which impacts daily life can be disseminated in such as way as to excite the imagination of some of the best and brightest school students motivating them to choose to study mathematical and physical science subjects at A level and beyond. This helps to sustain a future supply of qualified people for a wide range of professions and industrial careers.
Publications
Neo DC
(2016)
Poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) as a Hole Transport Layer for Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Liu WC
(2024)
Enhancing Conductivity of Silver Nanowire Networks through Surface Engineering Using Bidentate Rigid Ligands.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Sugime H
(2015)
Low-Temperature Growth of Carbon Nanotube Forests Consisting of Tubes with Narrow Inner Spacing Using Co/Al/Mo Catalyst on Conductive Supports.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Hjerrild NE
(2015)
Transfer printed silver nanowire transparent conductors for PbS-ZnO heterojunction quantum dot solar cells.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Cheng C
(2014)
Polystyrene templated porous titania wells for quantum dot heterojunction solar cells.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Chen P
(2018)
Epitaxial Growth of Monolayer MoS 2 on SrTiO 3 Single Crystal Substrates for Applications in Nanoelectronics
in ACS Applied Nano Materials
Liu W
(2021)
Solvodynamically Printed Silver Nanowire/Ethylene- co -vinyl Acetate Composite Films as Sensitive Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors
in ACS Applied Nano Materials
Chen Q
(2015)
Rotating Anisotropic Crystalline Silicon Nanoclusters in Graphene.
in ACS nano
Robertson AW
(2016)
Atomic Structure and Spectroscopy of Single Metal (Cr, V) Substitutional Dopants in Monolayer MoS2.
in ACS nano
Robertson AW
(2015)
Atomic Structure of Graphene Subnanometer Pores.
in ACS nano
Kim H
(2015)
Resilient High Catalytic Performance of Platinum Nanocatalysts with Porous Graphene Envelope.
in ACS nano
Warner JH
(2013)
Bond length and charge density variations within extended arm chair defects in graphene.
in ACS nano
Gong C
(2015)
Spatially dependent lattice deformations for dislocations at the edges of graphene.
in ACS nano
He K
(2014)
Extended Klein edges in graphene.
in ACS nano
Robertson AW
(2013)
Structural reconstruction of the graphene monovacancy.
in ACS nano
He K
(2015)
Temperature dependence of the reconstruction of zigzag edges in graphene.
in ACS nano
Gong C
(2015)
Thermally Induced Dynamics of Dislocations in Graphene at Atomic Resolution.
in ACS nano
Chen Q
(2016)
Atomic Structure and Dynamics of Epitaxial 2D Crystalline Gold on Graphene at Elevated Temperatures.
in ACS nano
Chen Q
(2016)
Elongated Silicon-Carbon Bonds at Graphene Edges.
in ACS nano
Chen Q
(2015)
Atomic Level Distributed Strain within Graphene Divacancies from Bond Rotations.
in ACS nano
Kim JS
(2015)
Formation of Klein Edge Doublets from Graphene Monolayers.
in ACS nano
Gonzalez D
(2013)
Three-dimensional observation and image-based modelling of thermal strains in polycrystalline alumina
in Acta Materialia
Mostafavi M
(2013)
Three-dimensional crack observation, quantification and simulation in a quasi-brittle material
in Acta Materialia
Mostafavi M
(2015)
Yield behavior beneath hardness indentations in ductile metals, measured by three-dimensional computed X-ray tomography and digital volume correlation
in Acta Materialia
Cai B
(2016)
Time-resolved synchrotron tomographic quantification of deformation during indentation of an equiaxed semi-solid granular alloy
in Acta Materialia
Li C
(2013)
Highly Electron Transparent Graphene for Field Emission Triode Gates
in Advanced Functional Materials
Wang S
(2022)
Epitaxially Constrained Grain Boundary Structures in an Oxide Honeycomb Monolayer
in Advanced Materials Interfaces
Powell A
(2016)
Plasmonic Gas Sensing Using Nanocube Patch Antennas
in Advanced Optical Materials
Patel R
(2015)
Gain Spectroscopy of Solution-Based Semiconductor Nanocrystals in Tunable Optical Microcavities
in Advanced Optical Materials
Jones L
(2015)
Smart Align-a new tool for robust non-rigid registration of scanning microscope data
in Advanced Structural and Chemical Imaging
Jones L
(2018)
Maximising the resolving power of the scanning tunneling microscope.
in Advanced structural and chemical imaging
Stevens A
(2018)
Subsampled STEM-ptychography
in Applied Physics Letters
De Luca A
(2015)
Enhanced spectroscopic gas sensors using in-situ grown carbon nanotubes
in Applied Physics Letters
Wilkinson A
(2014)
Measurement of probability distributions for internal stresses in dislocated crystals
in Applied Physics Letters
Chen P
(2020)
Experimental determination of the {111}/{001} surface energy ratio for Pd crystals
in Applied Physics Letters
Neo D
(2015)
Quantum funneling in blended multi-band gap core/shell colloidal quantum dot solar cells
in Applied Physics Letters
Yang J
(2015)
Growth of high-density carbon nanotube forests on conductive TiSiN supports
in Applied Physics Letters
Mostafavi M
(2013)
Flexural strength and defect behaviour of polygranular graphite under different states of stress
in Carbon
Marrow T
(2016)
In situ measurement of the strains within a mechanically loaded polygranular graphite
in Carbon
Wu C
(2014)
The effect of the size of surface Pd island ensembles on electron transfer of adsorbed perchlorate ions on Au(111).
in Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
Sun J
(2013)
Controlled growth of Ni nanocrystals on SrTiO(3) and their application in the catalytic synthesis of carbon nanotubes.
in Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
Wadey J
(2016)
Mechanisms of monovacancy diffusion in graphene
in Chemical Physics Letters
Robertson A
(2014)
PbTe Nanocrystal Arrays on Graphene and the Structural Influence of Capping Ligands
in Chemistry of Materials
Description | Applications of advanced characterisation to the understanding of a range of materials important to energy applications, including Graphene and other 2D materials, solar cells and optical devices |
Exploitation Route | Further applications of methods developed to a wider range of materials problems |
Sectors | Education Electronics Energy Other |
Description | Development of novel characterisation methods including Ptychography in various modes This is now being applied to a range of materials problems in academic in various laboratories and more recently is finding applications in structural biology |
First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
Sector | Education,Energy,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology,Other |
Description | Instrument Development with JEOL Ltd |
Organisation | Jeol UK Ltd |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Joint development of a time resolved TEM |
Collaborator Contribution | Joint development of a time resolved TEM |
Impact | None to date |
Start Year | 2018 |