Nanostructured Functional Materials for Energy Efficient Refrigeration, Energy Harvesting and Production of Hydrogen from Water.
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Materials
Abstract
This program is about using nanostructured materials to address key areas in energy related applications. This proposal will deliver world class materials science through ambitious thin and thick film development and analysis and the proposal targets the EPSRC strategic areas Energy and Nanoscience through nanoengineering. The programme grant will provide the opportunity to integrate three well established research areas that currently operate independently of each other and will establish a new consortium of activities. Collectively they offer the essential ingredients to move this particular field forward. The planned program of work is timely because of the convergence of modelling capability, precision multilayer oxide growth expertise and nanofabrication facilities. The overall vision for the Programme Grant is focussed on Energy. Within the Programme we aim to find means of reducing energy consumption for example by using electro and magnetocaloric means of cooling; generating energy by use of nanoscale rectifying antennas and finally storing energy by photocatalytic splitting of hydrogen from water. Our program is divided into two themed areas:1) Nanostructured oxides for Energy Efficient Refrigeration with 2 project areasElectrocaloricsMagnetocalorics2) Nanostructured oxides for energy production and storage with 2 project areasSolar HarvestingPhotocatalysisThis research will enable :- The development of new materials, new material architectures and new device concepts for energy refrigeration and energy harvesting. The synergy across a range of programs particularly the underpinning activities of materials theory, modelling and characterisation will move these important fields closer to application.- The research will also enable a new forum to be established, with representation from UK and European scientists and industrialists so that broad discussions can be held to enable moving these fields forward. We place a significant emphasis on training, outreach and knowledge transfer.The research challenges that need to be addressed are:- Designing physical systems that are close to an instability so that small external perturbations from magnetic or electric fields, optical or thermal excitation will tip the system into a new ground state- Optimising control over (strain, defects, doping inhomogeneity, disorder) and first layer effects in thin film oxides (with thicknesses of the order of 10nm or less) so that we can develop the capability to tune the band gap of the oxide using directed modelling and targeted growth control.
Organisations
- Imperial College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Cambridge (Project Partner)
- Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research (Project Partner)
- The Welding Institute (Project Partner)
- Daresbury Laboratory (Project Partner)
- Iowa State University (Project Partner)
- Camfridge (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Ericsson (Sweden) (Project Partner)
- National Physical Laboratory (Project Partner)
- Netzsch (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- University of Nova Gorica (Project Partner)
Publications
Ng W
(2024)
"Maser-in-a-shoebox": A portable plug-and-play maser device at room temperature and zero magnetic field
in Applied Physics Letters
Morrison K
(2012)
A calorimetric method to detect a weak or distributed latent heat contribution at first order magnetic transitions.
in The Review of scientific instruments
Korotana R
(2016)
A combined thermodynamics and first principles study of the electronic, lattice and magnetic contributions to the magnetocaloric effect in La 0.75 Ca 0.25 MnO 3
in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
Gammon P
(2012)
A study of temperature-related non-linearity at the metal-silicon interface
in Journal of Applied Physics
Goupil F
(2014)
Anisotropy of the Electrocaloric Effect in Lead-Free Relaxor Ferroelectrics
in Advanced Energy Materials
Wang Y
(2011)
Antiphase boundaries in Ba0.75Sr0.25TiO3 epitaxial film grown on (001) LaAlO3 substrate
in Applied Physics Letters
Liborio L
(2012)
Atomic structure of the (001) surface of CuGaSe2
in Surface Science
Xie F
(2013)
Au nanostructures by colloidal lithography: from quenching to extensive fluorescence enhancement.
in Journal of materials chemistry. B
Kaeswurm B
(2017)
Behaviour of the Young's modulus at the magnetocaloric transition in La(Fe,Co,Si)13
in Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Wu X
(2015)
Broadband plasmon photocurrent generation from Au nanoparticles/ mesoporous TiO2 nanotube electrodes
in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
Liborio L
(2011)
Chemistry of defect induced photoluminescence in chalcopyrites: The case of CuAlS2
in Journal of Applied Physics
Doig K
(2013)
Coherent magnon and acoustic phonon dynamics in tetragonal and rare-earth-doped BiFeO 3 multiferroic thin films
in Physical Review B
Eslava G
(2016)
Coupled magnetic and elastic properties in LaPr(CaSr)MnO manganites
in Physics Letters A
Belo J
(2013)
Critical magnetic behavior of magnetocaloric materials with the Gd5Si4-type structure
in Journal of Applied Physics
Wang Y
(2023)
Deposition of Nanocrystalline Multilayer Graphene Using Pulsed Laser Deposition
in Crystals
Bratko M
(2017)
Determining the first-order character of La ( Fe , Mn , Si ) 13
in Physical Review B
Centeno A
(2013)
Diffuse scattering from hemispherical nanoparticles at the air-silicon interface.
in Nanotechnology
Goupil F
(2012)
Direct and indirect electrocaloric measurements on <001>-PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3-30PbTiO3 single crystals
in Journal of Applied Physics
Le Goupil F
(2019)
Direct measurement of electrocaloric effect in lead-free (Na0.5Bi0.5)TiO3-based multilayer ceramic capacitors
in Journal of the European Ceramic Society
Wang Y
(2011)
Dissociation of misfit and threading dislocations in Ba0.75Sr0.25TiO3 epitaxial film
in Materials Characterization
Le Goupil F
(2014)
Effect of Ce doping on the electrocaloric effect of SrxBa1-xNb2O6 single crystals
in Applied Physics Letters
Berenov A
(2016)
Effect of ionic radii on the Curie temperature in Ba1-x-ySrxCayTiO3 compounds.
in Scientific reports
Valant M
(2010)
Electrocaloric effect in a ferroelectric Pb ( Zn 1 / 3 Nb 2 / 3 ) O 3 -PbTiO 3 single crystal
in Physical Review B
Axelsson A
(2017)
Electrocaloric effect in lead-free Aurivillius relaxor ferroelectric ceramics
in Acta Materialia
Le Goupil F
(2015)
Electrocaloric enhancement near the morphotropic phase boundary in lead-free NBT-KBT ceramics
in Applied Physics Letters
Symianakis E
(2015)
Electrochemical Characterization and Quantified Surface Termination Obtained by Low Energy Ion Scattering and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy of Orthorhombic and Rhombohedral LaMnO 3 Powders
in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Lyubina J
(2012)
Electrolytic hydriding of LaFe(13-x)Si(x) alloys for energy efficient magnetic cooling.
in Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
Ptashnik SV
(2017)
Ferroelectric thin film acoustic devices with electrical multiband switching ability.
in Scientific reports
Hadimani R
(2015)
Gd5(Si,Ge)4 thin film displaying large magnetocaloric and strain effects due to magnetostructural transition
in Applied Physics Letters
Mendonça A
(2018)
Giant magnetic-field-induced strain in Ni2MnGa-based polycrystal
in Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Pang J
(2017)
Gold nanodisc arrays as near infrared metal-enhanced fluorescence platforms with tuneable enhancement factors
in Journal of Materials Chemistry C
Zou B
(2016)
Growth of Epitaxial Oxide Thin Films on Graphene.
in Scientific reports
Bratko M
(2012)
History dependence of directly observed magnetocaloric effects in (Mn, Fe)As
in Applied Physics Letters
Korotana R
(2014)
Hybrid density functional study of structural, bonding, and electronic properties of the manganite series La 1 - x Ca x MnO 3 ( x = 0 , 1 4 , 1 )
in Physical Review B
Morrison K
(2013)
Identifying the critical point of the weakly first-order itinerant magnet DyCo 2 with complementary magnetization and calorimetric measurements
in Physical Review B
Turcaud J
(2015)
Influence of manganite powder grain size and Ag-particle coating on the magnetocaloric effect and the active magnetic regenerator performance
in Acta Materialia
Pires A
(2015)
Influence of short time milling in R5(Si,Ge)4, R = Gd and Tb, magnetocaloric materials
in Materials & Design
Porcari G
(2015)
Influence of thermal conductivity on the dynamic response of magnetocaloric materials
in International Journal of Refrigeration
Carta D
(2016)
Investigation of the Switching Mechanism in TiO2-Based RRAM: A Two-Dimensional EDX Approach.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Centeno A
(2011)
Light absorption and field enhancement in two-dimensional arrays of closely spaced silver nanoparticles
in Journal of the Optical Society of America B
Lovell E
(2016)
Low-temperature specific heat in hydrogenated and Mn-doped La ( Fe , Si ) 13
in Physical Review B
Recour Q
(2013)
Magnetic structures of Mn 3 - x Fe x Sn 2 : An experimental and theoretical study
in Physical Review B
Sandeman K
(2012)
Magnetocaloric materials: The search for new systems
in Scripta Materialia
Sandeman K
(2012)
Magnetocaloric materials: the search for new systems
Gercsi Z
(2013)
Magnetoelastic effects in doped Fe 2 P
in Physical Review B
Silva D
(2014)
Maximizing the temperature span of a solid state active magnetic regenerative refrigerator
in Applied Energy
Description | The project examines 4 areas. Electrocaloric materials that can change temperature on the application of a voltage, magnetocaloric materials that can change temperature on the application of a magnetic field, a rectifying antenna structure that can harvest incoming radiation (solar or infra red), and finally the catalytic dissociation of water to produce hydrogen. Findings so far: Electrocalorics Three key summary points that are priorities i) device set-up of a DSC-based direct-EC measurement system; ii) development of theoretical models describing the Electrocaloric effect; iii) synthesis of highly polarisable and anisotropic ceramics Magnetocalorics • Comparative study of manganites verses competitive materials • Optimisation of MCE with grain size and anisotropy • Assessments of the benefits of new material architectures Rectenna • Identification of suitable materials and device architecture • Development of nano-antennas • Manufacturing of MIM diodes Solar Hydrogen • Development of a theoretical model for complex charge transport in the semiconducting nanostructures. • Development of a model to assess photocatalytic performance. • Characterisation of the electronic structure of the nanostructures. |
Exploitation Route | The work described in this grant will lead to routes that will: Save energy (electrocaloric and magnetocaloric cooling) Produce energy by rectification of incoming radiation Store energy by producing hydrogen from water and storing the hydreogen Through industrial partners |
Sectors | Electronics,Energy,Environment,Security and Diplomacy |
Description | The magnetocalorics research was of direct benefit to a company - Camfridge. |
First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
Sector | Energy,Environment |
Impact Types | Economic |
Description | Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering |
Amount | £7,671,801 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/V001914/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2021 |
End | 06/2026 |
Description | "Electrocalorics -A new solid state cooler" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Primary Audience | |
Results and Impact | Anna-Karin Axelsson "Electrocalorics -A new solid state cooler" invited presentation, 13th April 2012, University of Nova Goricia , Slovenia. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |