Disordered Materials Express - Crown Ether/Nanotubide Solution Structure

Nanomaterials have long attracted attention for next generation energy devices, notably for quickly charging/discharging supercapacitors. Carbon nanotubes have long been seen as promising candidates owing to their high conductivity, low density, large surface area, and rapid ion conductivity. Here, we are looking at how nanotubes act as a supercapacitor by studying how ions move in solution when near charged nanotubes (akin to a charged supercapaictor). This work involves collaboration with the NIST-CNR facility in the USA, where we will be wrapping the ions in molecules called 'crown ethers' which we can monitor to measure the motion of the ions using a technique called QENS. However, to interpret these results we will need to understand what the crown ether system looks like using neutron scattering, which we will perform on the NIMROD instrument.