Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The world's transition from fossil fuels to clean energy sources is an opportunity for Canada to leverage our natural resources and existing expertise in electrochemical systems development. Refinement of raw materials to incorporate in these electrochemical systems increases our ability to capitalize on the total value chain for this transition, and if Canada prioritizes research in manufacturing, we should be able to design, fabricate and deploy these clean energy solutions for the benefit of modern society. The work to be accomplished centers around increasing tailored fabrication capabilities, using inexpensive methods that generate little waste, and that create components with advanced surface features that can facilitate the transition to a clean energy future. Significant advances in catalyst layer research and surface patterning have been developed in labs worldwide to enhance system performance, yet many of these processes incorporate non-scalable or untenably expensive production. It is of interest to develop processes that attend to automated production of these advanced surface features but with decreased costs and waste generated. The anticipated outcome of the proposed program is the development of new knowledge that correlates dynamic electroplating processes to desired surface features. Traditional industrial electroplating processes are sufficient to produce conformal coatings, and plating baths are optimized for stable plating conditions throughout the process duration. With advanced control systems, it is expected that dynamic variation can be facilitated in order to produce superwetting surfaces or other complex coatings. Commercial 3D printing setups will be augmented to include electroplating control that can be programmed to adjust the potential between electrodes automating electrode positioning in the plating system. Innovations in electrode size, shape, composition and electrolyte flow have been identified as variables to be investigated in combination with the proposed automation of cell electrode positioning. The research resulting from this program is designed to provide a globally needed methodology for high throughput production of stable, hierarchically designed surface morphologies to facilitate clean energy materials. The computational power required to correlate dynamic production methodologies with desired surface attributes already exists, and the work to measure and characterize the surface features from these dynamic processes will be welcomed by associated modelling communities. Canada will benefit distinctly from this development, as the production of these systems rely primarily on fabrication of nickel surface coatings, a natural resource which we have an abundance of, ranking 6th in the world. In addition, the produced films will help other Canadian cleantech industries, such as power to gas, hydrogen fuel cell, and metal air battery technologies grow from this accessible manufacturing research path.