This project will address the feasibility of a three-way collaboration to explore both components of the solar fuels production prototype – LSC-PV modules tuned for delivering stoichiometric quantities of photons and charge carriers, and photo- and photoelectrochemical catalytic conversion with catalyst materials matched to the LSC. The collaborating faculty will investigate the fundamental science underlying efficient use of solar energy for methanol production from CO2. They will study a new approach for making more practical and efficient use of the solar spectrum for this reaction by combining luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) and photovoltaic (PV) cells to harvest sunlight and remotely drive high-intensity photo- and photoelectrochemical reactors incorporating earth-abundant catalysts. Existing catalysts are most often comprised of high-cost precious metals (Pt, Ir) dispersed as nanoparticles on the surface of a photo-active metal oxide, such as titania (TiO2). In the proposed work, the investigators will initiate a new collaboration with the aim of using solar photons harvested from state-of-the-art LSC-PV modules to drive chemical reactions over a new class of photocatalysts based on earth-abundant metal phosphides.

Scalable fabrication of printed electronics and clean energy technologies represents a low-cost, high-throughput manufacturing practice with a reduced environmental footprint. The precise formulation of printable inks comprised of functional, earth-abundant nanomaterials dispersed in a solvent is essential to fabricating reproducible, high-performing devices. Agglomerates of these nanomaterials typically must be disaggregated to form stable, printable dispersions via sonication. A probe sonicator enables more vigorous and effective disaggregation because the probe delivers ultrasonic waves directly into the ink.

Membrion utilizes earth-abundant silica to create high-performance, ultra-low-cost ion exchange membranes critical to technologies in clean energy and water applications. Membrion’s silica-based membranes are nearly 100% recyclable, generate only sewerable waste streams (i.e., salt, sand & water), can be produced at 1/8th the manufacturing cost of typical ion exchange membranes and have the same or better performance as their perfluorocarbon-based predecessors

Highly alkaline aluminum-rich wastes are the abundant end-products of aluminum mining, with current estimates of the tailings exceed 150 million tons. The enormous scale of the waste streams presents an opportunity for environmental remediation and reuse, as part of a worldwide response to which billions of dollars are currently devoted. Efforts are underway to divert these tailings for reprocessing into valuable commodities, including construction materials, soil amendments, and as source materials for rare and valuable elements. These recovered materials are of great interest to the transportation and renewable energy sectors, among others. In particular, unprecedented growth is expected in the use of aluminum for lightweight automobiles.

Group14 Technologies has developed a breakthrough Li-ion anode material and is exploring paths to commercialization. This technology was developed under a grant from the Department of Energy and has been validated by DOE experts. Multiple potential customers and partners have also validated outstanding material performance. This material enables significantly higher energy density (20-30% Improvement) than typical anode materials and will deliver a cost below current anode materials on a $/Ah basis. These higher energy-density, lower cost anode materials will reduce the overall $/kWh by as much as 30%.

The U.S. will reach ~1 million sales of plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) each year by 2024. Recharging one million PEVs every night will cast enormous demands on the nation’s electrical grid, while the increased use of intermittent energy sources (e.g. winds) in the State of Washington will challenge the grid’s reliability to provide stable electrical energy. These challenges can be only addressed through the development of advanced energy storage systems and next-generation engineers.

To develop scientific tools for cross-cutting research and to advance the manufacturing technologies of materials used in clean energy technologies, the PI purchased a new workstation and software that can fully leverage the state-of-the-art, high-resolution X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) at WSU. The new setup will allow researchers to perform non-destructive 3D nanoscale imaging down to 50-nm spatial resolution, as well as virtual cross-sectioning and quantitative analysis of 3D volumes (including local pore space and internal defects like voids) that are not possible using typical 2D SEM and TEM techniques. While the focus of this seed project is porous silicon, X-ray Nano CT can be applied to other critical material systems.

High energy density lithium-ion battery chemistries typically use cobalt in the positive electrode, much of which is mined with unsustainable and inhumane methods. As a result, there is a push to reduce or eliminate cobalt from next-generation batteries, while maintaining comparable or improved battery performance. The Washington Battery data corpus works to achieve next generation ultra-low or no-cobalt chemistries by developing a comprehensive benchmark dataset based on today’s commercialized LiNMC chemistries; this data will enable statistically-sound accelerated performance and degradation testing.