Mekanistiska aspekter om protoner i rena energimaterial
Research Project, 2012 – 2016

Research on ''clean energy materials'' is one the most growing areas in the field of materials science. This is because of the need of developing cleaner and more sustainable sources of energy, which is one of the major challenges in the 21st century. The performance of alternative energy technologies depends on the properties of their component materials. For the development of next-generation devices, the discovery and optimization of new materials are critical to future breakthroughs. This depends on a better understanding of the basic science that underpins applied research, but such understanding is often lacking. In view of this lack of knowledge, this proposal aims at elucidating key fundamental properties, such as local structure, structural disorder and conduction mechanisms in two classes of energy-related materials, namely proton-conducting oxides, targeted for intermediate-temperature fuel cells, and "complex" metal hydrides, targeted as media for on-board hydrogen storage. The goal is to develop an atomic-scale understanding of the proton (hydrogen) diffusion mechanism and apply this knowledge to the rational design of new materials with higher proton conductivities or more favorable hydrogen sorption properties. The primary tools to this end involve the use of neutron and synchrotron x-ray scattering techniques, available at international large-scale facilities, and vibrational spectroscopy, available at Chalmers University of Technology.

Participants

Maths Karlsson (contact)

Condensed Matter Physics

Funding

Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF)

Project ID: ICA10-0001
Funding Chalmers participation during 2012–2016

Related Areas of Advance and Infrastructure

Sustainable development

Driving Forces

Materials Science

Areas of Advance

Publications

More information

Created

2015-02-12