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
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
Wang S
(2017)
Orientation dependent interlayer stacking structure in bilayer MoS2 domains.
in Nanoscale
Flatten LC
(2017)
Electrically tunable organic-inorganic hybrid polaritons with monolayer WS2.
in Nature communications
Wang S
(2017)
Atomic structure and formation mechanism of sub-nanometer pores in 2D monolayer MoS2.
in Nanoscale
Nellist P
(2017)
Electron-optical sectioning for three-dimensional imaging of crystal defect structures
in Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing
Gao S
(2017)
Electron ptychographic microscopy for three-dimensional imaging.
in Nature communications
Coles D
(2017)
A Nanophotonic Structure Containing Living Photosynthetic Bacteria.
in Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany)
Chen LG
(2017)
Snapshot 3D Electron Imaging of Structural Dynamics.
in Scientific reports
Barba D
(2017)
On the composition of microtwins in a single crystal nickel-based superalloy
in Scripta Materialia
Yang H
(2017)
Electron ptychographic phase imaging of light elements in crystalline materials using Wigner distribution deconvolution.
in Ultramicroscopy
Wang P
(2017)
Electron Ptychographic Diffractive Imaging of Boron Atoms in LaB6 Crystals.
in Scientific reports
Stevens A
(2018)
Subsampled STEM-ptychography
in Applied Physics Letters
Song B
(2018)
Hollow Electron Ptychographic Diffractive Imaging.
in Physical review letters
Chen P
(2018)
Epitaxial Growth of Monolayer MoS 2 on SrTiO 3 Single Crystal Substrates for Applications in Nanoelectronics
in ACS Applied Nano Materials
Gong Y
(2018)
Temperature dependence of the Gibbs energy of vacancy formation of fcc Ni
in Physical Review B
Lozano JG
(2018)
Low-Dose Aberration-Free Imaging of Li-Rich Cathode Materials at Various States of Charge Using Electron Ptychography.
in Nano letters
Sternlicht H
(2018)
Characterization of grain boundary disconnections in SrTiO3 Part II: the influence of superimposed disconnections on image analysis
in Journal of Materials Science
Liberti E
(2018)
In-Situ Annealing of the (110) and (001) Surfaces of SrTiO 3 Nanocuboids by High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy
in physica status solidi (a)
Jones L
(2018)
Maximising the resolving power of the scanning tunneling microscope.
in Advanced structural and chemical imaging
Fei H
(2018)
General synthesis and definitive structural identification of MN4C4 single-atom catalysts with tunable electrocatalytic activities
in Nature Catalysis
Song J
(2019)
Atomic Resolution Defocused Electron Ptychography at Low Dose with a Fast, Direct Electron Detector.
in Scientific reports
Liu WC
(2019)
Solvodynamic Printing As A High Resolution Printing Method.
in Scientific reports
Chen P
(2020)
Experimental determination of the {111}/{001} surface energy ratio for Pd crystals
in Applied Physics Letters
Liberti E
(2020)
Quantifying oxygen distortions in lithium-rich transition-metal-oxide cathodes using ABF STEM.
in Ultramicroscopy
Lee GD
(2020)
Direct observation and catalytic role of mediator atom in 2D materials.
in Science advances
Chen P
(2021)
Thermodynamics driving the strong metal-support interaction: Titanate encapsulation of supported Pd nanocrystals
in Physical Review Materials
Liu W
(2021)
Solvodynamically Printed Silver Nanowire/Ethylene- co -vinyl Acetate Composite Films as Sensitive Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors
in ACS Applied Nano Materials
Wang S
(2022)
Epitaxially Constrained Grain Boundary Structures in an Oxide Honeycomb Monolayer
in Advanced Materials Interfaces
Gao Y
(2022)
Encapsulated Pd crystals on anatase supports: High precision determination of the titanate overlayer moiré structure
in Surface Science
Liu WC
(2024)
Enhancing Conductivity of Silver Nanowire Networks through Surface Engineering Using Bidentate Rigid Ligands.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
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 |