The development of innovative materials represents a fundamental challenge for the development of new technologies.
The “Frontier materials and devices for energy applications” project aims, among other objectives, to develop materials for various applications such as heat exchange, even in corrosive environments, microgeneration, energy harvesting, catalysis and wind power. In this session some of the objectives and results obtained in continuity with the previous three-year plan will be described.
Additive technologies allow the production of components with a significant reduction in the use of raw materials, with the potential reduction of energy consumption and the possibility of creating complex geometries, which are difficult to achieve with conventional technologies, such as subtractive and foundry ones. The activities relating to the development of metallic, ceramic and composite materials for additive manufacturing and the creation, through these processes, of components for applications in the energy production sector will be described.
In the “clean energy” sector, the reduced availability and high cost of traditional noble metal-based electrocatalysts limit the widespread implementation of energy conversion and storage technologies. Therefore, the development of cheap and robust electrocatalysts derived from Earth-abundant elements, such as carbon and some transition metals, alternatives to Pt, is crucial.
In the industrial sector, it is important to achieve a reduction in energy costs, especially in production processes which, in the case of chemical processes, consist of 90% catalysed reactions. This reduction can be achieved through the use of reactors powered by electromagnetic induction in which catalytic materials based on NiCo alloys are used, suitable not only for the catalysis of the selected process, but also for the transformation of electrical energy into heat.
With regard to pyroelectric materials, used for low enthalpy heat recovery, the optimization of pyroelectric devices obtained from gravure printing through advanced process techniques will be explored.