Center for Interfacial Electrochemistry of Energy Materials (CIE2M): Advancing the PREM Pathway in Puerto Rico - Nanomaterials for Sustainable Renewable Energy

This Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) is focused on a rapid transition to the use of renewable energy (e.g., solar) to avoid the worst consequences of climate change that can seriously impact small tropical islands, such as, Puerto Rico. The partnership is among researchers studying nanomaterials for sustainable renewable energy at three campuses of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) (Río Piedras, Mayagüez, and Humacao), two campuses of the Universidad Ana G.

Méndez (UAGM) (Cupey and Gurabo), and the Center for High Energy X-ray Science (CHEXS), an NSF supported sub-facility at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS). Nanomaterials have emerged as promising candidates for revolutionizing energy harvesting and storage, but critical knowledge gaps persist in understanding nanomaterial synthesis, stability, scalability, and long-term environmental impacts.

Addressing these challenges is crucial for harnessing the full potential of energy nanomaterials and ensuring their sustainable integration into future energy systems. The development of these materials will facilitate advances in clean energy production and storage and enable the use of devices for different applications such as portable electronics, automotive applications, and power systems.

Materials science and electrochemistry are playing a central role in the development of solar cells, green hydrogen, batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors, and other technologies crucial to clean energy production and storage. The partnership will exploit innovative educational and research efforts to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in materials research and will create more sustainable and better performing materials.

The partnership will focus on the retention and degree attainment of undergraduate students in Puerto Rico engaged in energy materials research and leverage existing research and educational/outreach activities and programs at CHESS. This project is partially supported with co-funding from the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) and Sustainable Chemistry from the Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS).

The partnership brings together a diverse and talented scientific community with expertise in electrochemistry, solid-state, inorganic, and materials chemistry, and synchrotron-based techniques for characterization of energy materials under in situ/operando conditions at CHESS. The vision of this partnership is to gain fundamental understanding of charge transfer mechanisms and electrochemical processes across surfaces, sub-surfaces, and interfaces in nanostructured energy materials that will inspire undergraduate and graduate students to pursue interdisciplinary STEM careers using synchrotron-based techniques.

This PREM will have three thrusts: (1) Educational Thrust, propelling innovation on energy materials through the PREM pathway, emphasizing retention and degree attainment of undergraduate students in Puerto Rico; (2) Research Thrust 1 focusing on nanomaterials for energy harvesting and storage, studying interfacial processes in dye-sensitized solar cells under in situ and operando conditions, increasing nanomaterial stability through changes in composition, using layered inorganic nanomaterial supports for photosensitizers, and studying the role of bio-templating parameters and the effect in the materials properties; and (3) Research Thrust 2 focusing on nanostructured materials as catalysts for energy applications, focusing on the development of low-cost catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction of alkaline fuel cells and the oxygen evolution reaction of water electrolyzers. Understanding how the electrochemical processes occur at the electrode surface is one of the main goals of this thrust.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.