Invited Paper EN+AS+EM+TF-WeM9
Material Solutions for Solid State Energy Storage

Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 10:40 am, Room 203

The increasing demand for energy world-wide and inherent pressing environmental needs, have jump-started efforts to develop energy storage systems that can be coupled to renewable sources, and/or viable energy conversion systems. Traditional electrode materials for lithium-ion storage cells are typically crystalline, single-phase layered structures such as metal oxides, and graphitic carbons. These materials power billions of portable electronic devices in today’s society. However, large-scale, high-capacity storage devices capable of powering hybrid electric vehicles (HEV’s) or their plug-in versions (PHEV’s and EV’s) have much more demanding requirements. This in turn, means that demands are on chemists to create novel materials, and address fundamental scientific issues relating to mass (ion) and electron transport at rapid rates. Recently, nanostructured solid state materials comprised of two more compositions, are being increasingly exploited. These can take the form of “surface modified nanocrystallites”, or stuffed nanoporous materials. For example, we employ porous frameworks as electrically conductive scaffolds to encapsulate active electrode materials, where both components play a role in controlling the electrochemical performance. This presentation will provide an overview of how the nanostructured approach provides benefit over the bulk, using selected examples from a range of promising new solid state materials with targeted, and tuneable structures.