Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

This project will discover more about the molecular properties of molten salts and ionic liquids. The "two degree scenario" is a worldwide goal, supported by the United Nations, to limit world temperature increases to only 2 degrees above what they were before industrialization in the 1800s. Our research is in support of this goal. To achieve this goal, a reduction in greenhouse gas emission rates is needed. The use of fossil fuels (coal/gas/oil) in 2013 constituted 81% of worldwide energy sources, and in a feasible plan, by 2050 this only has to come down to 40% to achieve the two degree scenario. Hence, in my lifetime, there are two important simultaneous strategies to be pursued for improving the sustainability (economic and environmental) of worldwide energy production and consumption:--Strategy I: switch some industries from fossil fuels to alternative fuels of lower environmental impact. --Strategy II: reduce the two principal environmental costs of fossil fuel use: power consumption at mines/wells/refineries/power-plants, and CO2 exhaust to the atmosphere. Currently these two environmental sustainability Strategies are not economically sustainable. Chemists can play an important role if they can find materials that can render these Strategies economically sustainable. Molten salts and ionic liquids (low-melting molten salts) have been proposed in these regards, but more of the basic understanding of these materials is needed to make their use for Strategies I and II sustainable. For Strategy I, molten salts have seen recent development: for thermal energy storage in solar-to-steam electricity generation, as a coolant in next-generation nuclear power plants, and as potential electrolytes in massive molten batteries proposed for storage of wind and solar power. We are interested in the third of these -- as electrolytes in massive batteries. It is possible to "tune" the conductivity within these batteries with temperature, salt selection, or additives. To know how, we will learn more about how various molten salts conduct electricity. For Strategy II, ionic liquids are proposed. To reduce power consumption at refineries, we would like to reduce the operating temperature of petroleum cracking by merging the reduced-temperature ability of acidic ionic liquids with the product-control abilities of porous solids, but to do this, we need to understand the molecular mechanisms used by the acidic ionic liquids. To reduce CO2 exhaust to the atmosphere, although there are many researchers studying various materials for this, we are in collaboration with engineer Amr Henni who likes the very new idea of slurries, some of which involve ionic liquids. Here we intend on testing how ionic some of these slurries are, and using our previous knowledge on CO2 adsorption to design better slurries for CO2 capture.