Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

<p>Electrochemical energy conversion technologies such as fuel cells, electrolysers, and batteries provide viable solutions for grid-scale power management and alternatives to fossil fuel-based transportation. As markets for these technologies emerge and expand, even incremental increases in performance can dramatically reduce costs. However, to correctly assess performance, it is crucial to understand the composition of the active materials and accurately measure the loading. For example, fuel cell catalyst activities are based on the mass of catalyst (usually expensive precious metals) per unit area while compositional analysis can help to understand capacity fade in battery materials. The development of the next generation of materials for these applications, facilitated by fundamental research such as Dr. Wilkinson&rsquo;s, is very important to maintain Canada&rsquo;s strong position in these fields and meet efficiency targets for these technologies.</p> <p><span style=""line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 12.8px;"">This proposal is to request funding for an x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer to meet the immediate need for non-destructive elemental analysis of novel active materials for fuel cells, electrolysers, and batteries. Specifically, the XRF instrument will be used to quantify and assess the spatial distribution of catalyst loading and map the composition of battery electrodes as a function of cycling history. The inherent flexibility of XRF to analyze a wide range of elements (from aluminium to uranium) for both solid and liquid samples makes this tool uniquely useful across a wide variety of applications. This tool presents several advantages over the current methods used for elemental analysis, notably that it is non-destructive which allows analysis on the same area as performance testing, large areas can be quickly analyzed to assess heterogeneity, and its deep probe depth enables bulk measurements.</span></p> <p><span style=""line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 12.8px;""></span><span style=""line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 12.8px;"">XRF is utilized in a broad range of engineering applications including pollution monitoring, mineral exploration, and control of industrial processes. Access to this instrument is key to help train our current students, postdoctoral fellows, and research associates in the underlying scientific principles and operating procedures of XRF as it is imperative to provide industrially relevant experience to ensure their future success in the competitive Canadian workplace.</span></p>