Molecularly Engineered Energy Materials, an Energy Frontier Research Center
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Materials Science and Engineering Dept.
Molecularly Engineered Energy Materials (MEEM) was established as an interdisciplinary cutting-edge UCLA-based research center uniquely equipped to attack the challenge of rationally designing, synthesizing and testing revolutionary new energy materials. Our mission was to achieve transformational improvements in the performance of materials via controlling the nano-and mesoscale structure using selectively designed, earth-abundant, inexpensive molecular building blocks. MEEM has focused on materials that are inherently abundant, can be easily assembled from intelligently designed building blocks (molecules, nanoparticles), and have the potential to deliver transformative economic benefits in comparison with the current crystalline-and polycrystalline-based energy technologies. MEEM addressed basic science issues related to the fundamental mechanisms of carrier generation, energy conversion, as well as transport and storage of charge and mass in tunable, architectonically complex materials. Fundamental understanding of these processes will enable rational design, efficient synthesis and effective deployment of novel three-dimensional material architectures for energy applications. Three interrelated research directions were initially identified where these novel architectures hold great promise for high-reward research: solar energy generation, electrochemical energy storage, and materials for CO2 capture. Of these, the first two remained throughout the project performance period, while carbon capture was been phased out in consultation and with approval from BES program manager.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0001342
- OSTI ID:
- 1327544
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-UCLA-0001342
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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