Nanoengineered Multifunctional Structural Energy Storage
Abstract
Emerging Navy applications can benefit significantly from systems-level savings of structural power, where the structure and power s,torage occupy the same mass and volume. Ions, as the working principle for batteries and supercapacitors, are nanometer scale, and t,herefore nanoengineering can be used to create advantaged structural power solutions, provided the nanoengineering is done at the bu,lk scale. Indeed, many energy storage advances in recent years have focused on nanoengineered solutions such as aligned or textured,electrodes for fast ion transport (and high power density). Here we use facile nanoengineering at the bulk scale to create structura,l power composites that have the potential to break the current compromising approaches wherein some structural or energy capability, is given up when combining the two; rather, we build on recent work that has shown ?better-than-one? capability in a structural sep,arator concept, and extend it to better-than-both, i.e., going beyond the limit of 100% system-level benefit via synergistic mechani,sms we have identified that can emerge when combining structural and power functions. We describe a layered composite comprised of h,ierarchical fiber composites (structural carbon fibers and carbon nanostructures, CNS) as the structural electrode layers, where the, CNS are typically aligned carbon nanofibers (A-CNFs) or carbon nanotubes (A-CNTs), that reinforce the matrix mechanically and at th,e same time also increase by at least 3000% the active surface area for charge storage; and a structural separator comprised of alig,ned boron nitride nanotubes (A-BNNTs) that electrically isolates the structural electrodes, but also mechanically reinforces the int,erface. We introduced the first structural separator comprised of aligned alumina nanotubes (A-ANTs) with demonstrated synergies all,owing better-than-one performance via structural reinforcement of the interface, thus increasing structural performance as well as i,nitiating a more favorable phase of electroactive polymer via polymer morphology modification induced by the hard nanofibers, thus a,lso increasing energy performance beyond the baseline. A-BNNTs are far advantaged over A-ANTs, and are now a unique capability in th,e PIs research group. Taken together, the nanoengineered structural separator and composite electrodes have the potential to improve, performance into the better-than-both regime. Finally, the polymer matrix in the structural electrodes will be studied using a uniq,ue platform to discover the optimal combination of mechanical and electrical performance, again targeting potential synergies from p,rocess-structure interactions of the polymer matrix with the A-BNNTs. At the end of the first year of this proposal, we will have de,monstrated structural and power performance of the fully nanoengineered structural power composite supercapacitor device at the cm-s,cale, and explored additional synergies via polymer matrix morphology tuning. These advances are targeted at structural supercapacit,ors, but also have application in structural batteries, supporting future Navy and DoD capabilities including extreme system-level p,erformance. Approved for public release.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 05, 2022
- Source ID
- N000142212630
Entities
People
- Brian Wardle
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy