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
Kim H
(2015)
Resilient High Catalytic Performance of Platinum Nanocatalysts with Porous Graphene Envelope.
in ACS nano
BAIMPAS N
(2014)
RICH TOMOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES FOR THE ANALYSIS OF MICROSTRUCTURE AND DEFORMATION
in International Journal of Computational Methods
Warner JH
(2013)
Rippling graphene at the nanoscale through dislocation addition.
in Nano letters
Flatten L
(2016)
Room-temperature exciton-polaritons with two-dimensional WS2
Flatten LC
(2016)
Room-temperature exciton-polaritons with two-dimensional WS2.
in Scientific reports
Chen Q
(2015)
Rotating Anisotropic Crystalline Silicon Nanoclusters in Graphene.
in ACS nano
Warner JH
(2013)
Sensitivity of graphene edge states to surface adatom interactions.
in Nano letters
Yang H
(2016)
Simultaneous atomic-resolution electron ptychography and Z-contrast imaging of light and heavy elements in complex nanostructures.
in Nature communications
Jones L
(2015)
Smart Align-a new tool for robust non-rigid registration of scanning microscope data
in Advanced Structural and Chemical Imaging
Chen LG
(2017)
Snapshot 3D Electron Imaging of Structural Dynamics.
in Scientific reports
Liu WC
(2019)
Solvodynamic Printing As A High Resolution Printing Method.
in Scientific reports
Liu W
(2021)
Solvodynamically Printed Silver Nanowire/Ethylene- co -vinyl Acetate Composite Films as Sensitive Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors
in ACS Applied Nano Materials
Gong C
(2015)
Spatially dependent lattice deformations for dislocations at the edges of graphene.
in ACS nano
Robertson AW
(2014)
Stability and dynamics of the tetravacancy in graphene.
in Nano letters
Wu C
(2015)
Stoichiometry engineering of ternary oxide ultrathin films: Ba x Ti 2 O 3 on Au(111)
in Physical Review B
Flatten LC
(2016)
Strong Exciton-Photon Coupling with Colloidal Nanoplatelets in an Open Microcavity.
in Nano letters
Robertson AW
(2013)
Structural reconstruction of the graphene monovacancy.
in ACS nano
Stevens A
(2018)
Subsampled STEM-ptychography
in Applied Physics Letters
Allen C
(2015)
Temperature dependence of atomic vibrations in mono-layer graphene
in Journal of Applied Physics
Gong Y
(2018)
Temperature dependence of the Gibbs energy of vacancy formation of fcc Ni
in Physical Review B
He K
(2015)
Temperature dependence of the reconstruction of zigzag edges in graphene.
in ACS nano
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)
Robertson AW
(2014)
The role of the bridging atom in stabilizing odd numbered graphene vacancies.
in Nano letters
Gong C
(2015)
Thermally Induced Dynamics of Dislocations in Graphene at Atomic Resolution.
in ACS nano
Chen P
(2021)
Thermodynamics driving the strong metal-support interaction: Titanate encapsulation of supported Pd nanocrystals
in Physical Review Materials
Mostafavi M
(2013)
Three-dimensional crack observation, quantification and simulation in a quasi-brittle material
in Acta Materialia
Gonzalez D
(2013)
Three-dimensional observation and image-based modelling of thermal strains in polycrystalline alumina
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
Cai B
(2015)
Time-resolved synchrotron tomographic quantification of deformation-induced flow in a semi-solid equiaxed dendritic Al-Cu alloy
in Scripta Materialia
Trichet AA
(2015)
Topographic control of open-access microcavities at the nanometer scale.
in Optics express
Hjerrild NE
(2015)
Transfer printed silver nanowire transparent conductors for PbS-ZnO heterojunction quantum dot solar cells.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Marks LD
(2015)
Transition from Order to Configurational Disorder for Surface Reconstructions on SrTiO_{3}(111).
in Physical review letters
Gonzalez-Cortes S
(2016)
Wax: A benign hydrogen-storage material that rapidly releases H2-rich gases through microwave-assisted catalytic decomposition.
in Scientific reports
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
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 |