Rethinking Multifunction in Three Dimensions for Miniaturizing Electrical Energy Storage

摘要

Electrical energy storage in batteries and electrochemical capacitors (ECs) will be vital for any future success in the global effort to shift energy usage away from fossil fuels. A marked improvement in the performance of these power sources is critical for this effort, yet both are mature technologies with over two centuries worth of chemical energy storage in batteries, while the physical principles underlying storing charge at electrochemical interfaces date to Helmholtz. Improved performance requires redesigning the reaction interphases in which the fundamental processes that store energy in batteries and ECs occur. Energy researchers are now rethinking the requisite multifunction—mass and charge transport, electronic and ionic conductivity, and electron-transfer kinetics—in light of nanoscience and architectural design in three dimensions. We and research groups around the world are in the early stages of demonstrating that the design and fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) multifunctional architectu res from the appropriate nanoscale building blocks affords opportunities to improve energy storage for power/size scales that range from micropower upward.