Current Projects

Advanced Lithium Ion Capacitors and Electrodes (ALICE) https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=102655

The Advanced Lithium Ion Capacitors and Electrodes (ALICE) project will develop lithium ion capacitors (LICs) and validate these in a 48V module for use in three market sectors - automotive, e-bus and materials handling equipment.

LICs combine the benefits of lithium ion and supercapacitor electrode materials and structures, providing enhancing energy density vs supercapacitors and better power density than batteries.

Advanced materials will be developed and scaled (Johnson Matthey) and novel coating techniques (Oxford) used to provide electrode structures optimsed for high rate capability. Roll to roll coating and A5 pouch cell manufacture (Warwick Manufacturing Group) will be followed by 48V module build and testing (Johnson Matthey Battery Systems (JMBS)) based on end user defined requirements (Nacco Materials Handling, BAE systems, JMBS and Delta Motorsport) and accelerated test protocols. Development of a physics based cell model (Imperial) will interlink with sophisticated layer structure characterisation (tomography, TEM) & cell performance results, evolving a rational design approach for specific end use scenarios.

https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=102655

Analytical and Characterisation Excellence (ACEnano) http://www.acenano-project.eu/

ACEnano will introduce confidence, adaptability and clarity into nanomaterial risk assessment by developing a widely implementable and robust tiered approach to nanomaterials physicochemical characterisation that will simplify and facilitate contextual (hazard or exposure) description and its transcription into a reliable nanomaterials grouping framework.

This will be achieved by the creation of a “conceptual toolbox” including a tiered approach to cost efficient nanomaterials analysis that will facilitate decision-making in choice of techniques and SOPs, linked to a characterisation ontology framework for grouping and risk assessment.

ACEnano will initiate activities to support data collection, management, interpretation and delivery to a data warehouse for safe use & storage. It will thus underpin the future of nanomaterial quality control, labelling and anti-counterfeiting.

http://www.acenano-project.eu/

Nanomaterial Fate and Speciation in the Environment http://www.nanofase.eu/

Progress is needed in the prediction of environmental distribution, concentration and form (speciation) of nanomaterials, to allow early assessment of potential environmental and human exposure and risks, to facilitate safe product design and to include these aspects in nano regulation.

The overarching objective of NanoFASE is to deliver an Integrated Exposure Assessment Framework (protocols, models, parameter values, guidance ...) that:

- Allows all stakeholders to assess the environmental fate of nano releases from industrial nano-enabled products,

- Is acceptable in regulatory registrations and can be integrated into the EUSES model for REACH assessment,

- Allows industry a cost-effective product-to-market process, and

- Delivers the understanding at all levels to support dialogue with public and consumers.

The ambition is to reach a level of ENM Fate and exposure assessment at least comparable with that for conventional chemicals.

For that, NanoFASE will develop a set of novel concepts and approaches to underpin the Framework, developed as common themes linking the research, exploitation and dissemination throughout the project.

Our vision is to move from the current mainly mass-based lifecycle and release flow approaches towards systems that can account for spatial and temporal variability of ENM release, environmental transport and fate. The framework, supported by standard operating procedures (SOPs), parameter values, models and guidance, will incorporate:

1. the behaviour of the actual relevant ENM forms released from ENM products (a distribution of composite bound and free particles);

2. how reactions in waste management and environmental compartments (or "reactors") transform such release-relevant ENMs (integrating environmental speciation with ENM properties); and

3. the consequences of these transformations for transport and fate and among the different environmental compartments including organism uptake and local accumulation of ENMs in some environmental compartments ("environmental sinks" and hot spots).

http://www.nanofase.eu/