Composite materials with co-continuous arrangement of their constituent phases are highly valuable for electrochemical energy storage and conversion. Particularly in batteries, the need to simultaneously maximize the storage capacity and power delivery of the system requires the electrodes to be made of electrochemically active composites with co-continuous morphology that is tunable at length scales relevant to their electrochemical function (nano- to tens of micrometers). To this end, the proposed program will seek to develop a new platform for the synthesis of bulk electrochemical composites with tunable co-continuous microstructure using a soft matter templating technique recently developed in the Principal Investigator?s laboratory. The approach will be based on the self-assembly of solid-stabilized emulsions that inherently have a tunable co-continuous microstructure, and subsequent chemical transformations of their different phases. The required processing conditions to convert these co-continuous soft materials into electrochemically functional composites will be systematically investigated, and the fundamental roles of the physicochemical and processing parameters in controlling their morphology and electrochemical performance will be addressed.
If successful, the proposed program will institute a new approach to the design of composite electrodes that meet the design criteria for efficient storage and rapid delivery of electrochemical energy, made possible by their unique microstructure. Because the synthesis protocol is based on self-assembly in multi-phase mixtures, it allows such materials to be readily prepared in macroscopic dimensions with co-continuous morphology that is tunable at the microscopic level. Understanding the fundamental parameters that govern the processing of these soft material templates into co-continuous composites can also have a strong impact in a diverse array of other applications including catalysis, tissue engineering, separations, and fundamental studies of transport through porous media.
