Several parallel activities targeting the intrusion-extrusion triboelectrification process were studied during the first year of the project: i) synthesis and characterization of porous materials, ii) electrification experiments and simulations, iii) calorimetric experiments and simulations, iv) shock-absorber prototype development and modeling.
To perform the electrification experiments, a custom-made setup was developed, calibrated and adjusted for the project's needs. Performed electrification experiments with a bias voltage resulted in high values of generated energy with considerably higher Figure of merit compared to the state-of-the-art. It was discovered that the interplay between operational conditions and the stability of materials will be an important constraint for this technology. In particular, it was found that bias voltage results in materials degradation (organic grafting). A mitigation strategy was applied within which a passive scheme with zero voltage was explored. Such a scheme resolved the degradation issue. However, the electrical output is low, most likely, due to the problem of charge transfer. To resolve this issue of charge transer, a new model-like material was used for the intrusion-extrusion experiments. Namely, nanoporous monolithic silica was modified to achieve the intrusion-extrusion cycle with a controlled path for the electrones. This noticeably improved the kinetics and repeatability of intrusion-extrusion-related electrification. The next step will be to optimize such a monolithic configuration according to the triboelectric series to maximize the electrification effect. Molecular dynamics and ab initio simulations have been performed to identify the mechanism of contact electrification between porous solids and intruded liquids.
Understanding the heat effects during the non-wetting liquid intrusion-extrusion (int-ext) into-from nanoporous solids is a crucial objective of the project. The proper design of the heterogeneous lyophobic systems (HLSs) should allow harvesting thermal energy from the environment. Some properties of solids and liquids are taken and studied to determine the trends relating to temperature of intrusion-extrusion, effects of solutions which include solutes of various sizes and thermodynamic properties. The obtained results revealed high sensitivity of the intrusion/extrusion heat to different solutes, and indicate that this strategy can be used to enhance the net heat in the cycle. Synergistic research activities have been conducted, which comprised experimental measurements (USK) and computational simulations. From the simulation side they have developed molecular models from computer simulation. These simulations provided guidance instruction on how to further understand the mechanism of thermal energy generation and conversion into electricity via intrusion-extrusion cycle.To maximize the thermal effects in the intrusion-extrusion cycle, a new strategy of preferential intrusion was tested and verified. By using microporous materials (below 2 nm in pore size according to IUPAC classification), we achieved the mixing-demixing effect of different solutions upon the intrusion-extrusion cycle. This allowed for the first time to control the intrusion/extrusion thermal effects in terms of magnitude and size.
Three generations of the prototype shock absorber were designed and the first generation prototype was constructed and at the point to be tested using a vibration bench. CFD modeling of the prototype was performed. The equation of state of the intrusion-extrusion process was introduced into the CFD model and validated using the available experimental data.
Several integration schemes for an electric vehicle were designed and subjected to laboratory testing.
