Anisotropic Cu aerogel monolith electrocatalyst

Research question

 Electrocatalytic reactions are critical for the energy conversion processes that occur inside energy storage technologies and therefore play an important role in sustainable energy systems and environmental remediation. Anisotropic metallic aerogel is a gel-type of solid material in which its liquid component has been removed. The material is promising because it combines the unique properties of metal with the structural advantages of aerogels, where structural anisotropy provides fast mass transportation. Copper is a particularly attractive material due to its large reserves, high activity, and accessible redox states. Current fabrication is limited by the technologies to build up large anisotropic aerogel structures. This project aims to design and fabricate scalable anisotropic Cu aerogel electrocatalyst by biomaterial templating where biomaterial structure is used and tailored. 

Sustainability aspects  

This project contributes to efficient energy conversions for clean energy related to SDG 7. The CO2 reduction is a technology for CO2 capture and storage, which is directly relates to SDG 13. It also addresses the need to utilize raw materials (Cu) more efficiently related to SDG 8. Materials recycling/upcycling is considered for this project in line with SDG 12.