Using defects to store energy in materials – a computational study

Lu, I-Te; Bernardi, Marco

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-01434-8

Title: Using defects to store energy in materials – a computational study

Journal Article · Tue Jun 13 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01434-8· OSTI ID:1490407

Lu, I-Te ^[1]; Bernardi, Marco ^[1]

California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Dept. of Applied Physics and Materials Science

Energy storage occurs in a variety of physical and chemical processes. In particular, defects in materials can be regarded as energy storage units since they are long-lived and require energy to be formed. Here, we investigate energy storage in non-equilibrium populations of materials defects, such as those generated by bombardment or irradiation. We first estimate upper limits and trends for energy storage using defects. First-principles calculations are then employed to compute the stored energy in the most promising elemental materials, including tungsten, silicon, graphite, diamond and graphene, for point defects such as vacancies, interstitials and Frenkel pairs. We find that defect concentrations achievable experimentally (~0.1–1 at.%) can store large energies per volume and weight, up to ~5 MJ/L and 1.5 MJ/kg for covalent materials. Engineering challenges and proof-of-concept devices for storing and releasing energy with defects are discussed. Our work demonstrates the potential of storing energy using defects in materials.

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Research Organization:: California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1490407

Journal Information:: Scientific Reports, Vol. 7; ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 15 works

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