Overview
Topic status: We're looking for students to study this topic.
Project Summary
Today’s high-tech devices are powered by batteries that rely on the transfer of charged species at solid/solution interfaces (the so called electrochemical interface) within very thin nano-porous electrodes. These ultra-high-tech electrodes are the reason that you can talk on your smart phone all day or work on your tablet computer non-stop for 10hours or so and not need to recharge them. They are also the key driver behind the integration of hybrid electric vehicles into the main stream car market. Batteries and the electrodes within them are the limiting technology when it comes to the size, weight and efficacy of these modern day devices. Understanding and optimising the processes that occur within these electrodes is the key to developing the next generation of personal electronic gadgets and fully electric vehicles! Mathematical modelling and computer simulation have and will continue to, play key roles in providing this understanding.
An electrochemical double layer is a feature that forms when an electrolyte solution is placed in contact with a solid electrode; inside a battery for example. It has a complex structure that is often ignored in traditional mathematical models of the electrochemical interface. However, the double layer and the effect that it has on electrode kinetics may be an important consideration in developing accurate mathematical models of the high-tech batteries mentioned above. In this project we investigate in some detail the important structural models of the electrochemical double layer and seek to understand the effect of the double layer on electrode kinetics.
Expected outcomes, applications and/or benefits
We will develop and solve mathematical models that describe the transfer of charge at electrochemical interfaces, accounting for the presence of a double layer and features such as the specific adsorption of reacting and non-reacting ionic species. Such models will be used to inform and update already existing mathematical models of lithium ion battery operation.
Required student skills/experience
The principles of thermodynamics and continuum mechanics will be the foundation on which the models in this project are developed. Knowledge of calculus and differential equations and some basic numerical (MATLAB) skills will be required. No prior knowledge of physics or chemistry is necessary, just a keenness to understand fundamental physical processes via the application of mathematics.
- Study level
- Vacation research experience scholarship
- Supervisors
- QUT
- Organisational unit
Science and Engineering Faculty
- Research area
- Keywords
- electrochemical, modelling
- Contact
- Contact the supervisor for more information
Associate Professor Troy Farrell
