Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100021
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$440,154.00
Summary
Kesterite/Si Tandem Structure for Unassisted Overall Solar Fuel Production. This project aims to develop Kesterite/Si tandem device for photoelectrochemical carbon dioxide reduction to produce solar fuels. It is expected to reveal the photoelectrochemical mechanism of the p-n heterojunction, thereby promoting solar energy utilisation and greenhouse gas reduction. Expected outcomes include delivery of a high-performance kesterite photocathode for efficient CO2 reduction, a kesterite/Si tandem dev ....Kesterite/Si Tandem Structure for Unassisted Overall Solar Fuel Production. This project aims to develop Kesterite/Si tandem device for photoelectrochemical carbon dioxide reduction to produce solar fuels. It is expected to reveal the photoelectrochemical mechanism of the p-n heterojunction, thereby promoting solar energy utilisation and greenhouse gas reduction. Expected outcomes include delivery of a high-performance kesterite photocathode for efficient CO2 reduction, a kesterite/Si tandem device for overall unassisted solar fuel production, and an in-depth understanding of structure-performance correlation to guide future heterojunction photocathode design. This project should provide significant benefits in minimising fossil fuel consumption, increasing energy security, and expanding the clean energy industry.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101127
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$443,181.00
Summary
Stabilising soil foundation with biopolymer for enhanced rail transport. This project aims to develop a novel cost-effective and eco-friendly method to stabilise soil foundation for faster and heavier rail transport. The scientific knowledge of cyclic behaviour capturing localised and microscale evolutions of railway foundation will be advanced significantly via innovative physical modelling using iconic facilities with state-of-the-art sensors, and sophisticated numerical modelling. The project ....Stabilising soil foundation with biopolymer for enhanced rail transport. This project aims to develop a novel cost-effective and eco-friendly method to stabilise soil foundation for faster and heavier rail transport. The scientific knowledge of cyclic behaviour capturing localised and microscale evolutions of railway foundation will be advanced significantly via innovative physical modelling using iconic facilities with state-of-the-art sensors, and sophisticated numerical modelling. The project will yield a natural biopolymer-based solution for mud pumping railways, i.e., a critical issue causing substantial annual maintenance cost and poor transport efficiency in Australia and worldwide. The outcomes will greatly benefit transport infrastructure, mining, agriculture, environment and climate change remediation.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101617
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$434,395.00
Summary
Re-engineering metallic-based nanostructures for carbon dioxide conversion. This project aims to fine-tune the interface of low-temperature liquid metals to produce functional hybrid nanomaterials for CO2 reduction. The expected outcomes of the projects are to develop fundamental knowledge on the integration of functional molecules on the bulk, core, and skin of liquid metals and their alloys. It intends to control the atomic arrangement of the elemental constituents, nucleation, as well as inte ....Re-engineering metallic-based nanostructures for carbon dioxide conversion. This project aims to fine-tune the interface of low-temperature liquid metals to produce functional hybrid nanomaterials for CO2 reduction. The expected outcomes of the projects are to develop fundamental knowledge on the integration of functional molecules on the bulk, core, and skin of liquid metals and their alloys. It intends to control the atomic arrangement of the elemental constituents, nucleation, as well as interaction and dissolution of organic/inorganic molecules in the interface and bulk of liquid metals. The anticipated outcomes of this project are to define a knowledge roadmap to exploit the untapped potentials of liquid metals in CO2 reduction, which would enable the production of the next generation of catalytic devices.Read moreRead less
Advanced Gas Diffusion Electrodes For Electrochemical Manufacturing. This project aims to develop electrochemical conversion technologies to convert carbon dioxide into globally needed chemicals. It targets the bottleneck issues in managing the gas-liquid-solid reaction sites and improving the conversion efficiency of reactor, through the synthesis of advanced electrode materials, understanding of mass transfer and the engineering design of an electrochemical reactor. The expected outcomes will ....Advanced Gas Diffusion Electrodes For Electrochemical Manufacturing. This project aims to develop electrochemical conversion technologies to convert carbon dioxide into globally needed chemicals. It targets the bottleneck issues in managing the gas-liquid-solid reaction sites and improving the conversion efficiency of reactor, through the synthesis of advanced electrode materials, understanding of mass transfer and the engineering design of an electrochemical reactor. The expected outcomes will promote carbon neutral goals, bridge the renewable energy storage and sustainable chemical manufacturing gap, thus addressing key challenges faced by Australia and the world.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101396
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,218.00
Summary
Designing Single-atom catalysts for Renewable Waste Conversion to Urea. This DECRA aims to realise the direct electrochemical conversion of waste resources using renewable energy to generate urea at ambient conditions. By designing impurity-tolerant single atom catalysts and unearthing their structure-activity relationships, the utilisation of flue gas and wastewater will be materialised. This will advance our understanding in the field as current energy conversion reactions require pure feedsto ....Designing Single-atom catalysts for Renewable Waste Conversion to Urea. This DECRA aims to realise the direct electrochemical conversion of waste resources using renewable energy to generate urea at ambient conditions. By designing impurity-tolerant single atom catalysts and unearthing their structure-activity relationships, the utilisation of flue gas and wastewater will be materialised. This will advance our understanding in the field as current energy conversion reactions require pure feedstocks. Expected outcomes from the program is envisioned to lead to deployment of scalable decentralised modes of green urea production (substituting imports), and the knowledge transferrable to other areas of Australia’s emerging hydrogen economy, extending the scope of renewable Power-to-X to realise a circular economy.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101068
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$454,554.00
Summary
Direct Electrolysis of Amine Captured CO2 for Producing Syngas. This project aims to develop electrolysis of amine captured carbon dioxide (CO2) technology to integrate CO2 capture and syngas production powered by renewable electricity. The aqueous amine captured CO2 will be directly electrolysed without CO2 desorption, compression, and purification, featuring extremely high efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Expected outcomes include the delivery of suitable amines, a family of chemically and s ....Direct Electrolysis of Amine Captured CO2 for Producing Syngas. This project aims to develop electrolysis of amine captured carbon dioxide (CO2) technology to integrate CO2 capture and syngas production powered by renewable electricity. The aqueous amine captured CO2 will be directly electrolysed without CO2 desorption, compression, and purification, featuring extremely high efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Expected outcomes include the delivery of suitable amines, a family of chemically and structurally controlled electrocatalysts, an in-depth understanding of CO2 electrolysis mechanisms, and the demonstration of robust electrolyser prototypes. This project will provide significant benefits to Australia’s energy and environmental security, and boost its clean energy industry and economic growth.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100357
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$409,118.00
Summary
Catalyst design for converting carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals. This project aims to use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas that drives global climate change, into valuable chemicals via catalytic reduction. This project expects to facilitate the selective production of valuable ethylene from carbon dioxide reduction by developing novel cocatalyst materials derived from metal-oxo cluster molecules. Expected outcomes include fundamental understanding of the ....Catalyst design for converting carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals. This project aims to use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas that drives global climate change, into valuable chemicals via catalytic reduction. This project expects to facilitate the selective production of valuable ethylene from carbon dioxide reduction by developing novel cocatalyst materials derived from metal-oxo cluster molecules. Expected outcomes include fundamental understanding of the structure-property relationship in new catalytic systems, and technological breakthroughs in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The success of this project will bring significant environmental and economic benefits, and position Australia at the frontier of global transition to a low-carbon economy.Read moreRead less
Next-Generation Solvers for Complex Microwave Engineering Problems. This project aims to design a complementary physics-guided, data-driven method that can accurately solve complex microwave engineering problems in a timely manner. The primary bottleneck so far preventing that approach, which is the disparity between the trained theoretical model and reality, will be overcome using a multi-frequency complex-valued domain adaptation technique. The method will use deep neural networks to reliably ....Next-Generation Solvers for Complex Microwave Engineering Problems. This project aims to design a complementary physics-guided, data-driven method that can accurately solve complex microwave engineering problems in a timely manner. The primary bottleneck so far preventing that approach, which is the disparity between the trained theoretical model and reality, will be overcome using a multi-frequency complex-valued domain adaptation technique. The method will use deep neural networks to reliably learn the physical concepts of microwave engineering problems. This project will have significant economic and societal benefits, such as supporting the efficient design, installation and operation of communication systems, mining, infrastructure inspection, security, remote sensing, and microwave imaging. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101391
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$426,118.00
Summary
Intelligent Physical Layer Security Protocols for Backscattering in IoT. This project aims to develop novel theories, system models, and energy-efficient optimisation algorithms to fight against eavesdropping and jamming attacks in backscatter communication networks. This project expects to advance knowledge in cybersecurity and sustainable communications by utilising passive tags for several confidential applications like human tracking and financial distributed systems. Expected outcomes inclu ....Intelligent Physical Layer Security Protocols for Backscattering in IoT. This project aims to develop novel theories, system models, and energy-efficient optimisation algorithms to fight against eavesdropping and jamming attacks in backscatter communication networks. This project expects to advance knowledge in cybersecurity and sustainable communications by utilising passive tags for several confidential applications like human tracking and financial distributed systems. Expected outcomes include vital technologies required in practically realising the ubiquitous deployment of low-cost sustainable wireless devices in Internet-of-Things. This should significantly benefit the Australian industry, society and economy regarding reduced energy costs, enhanced spectrum efficiency, and improved communication security.Read moreRead less
Energy dissipation characterisation in dynamic brittle fracture. Energy dissipation in dynamic fracture of brittle materials is pivotal in mining, civil engineering and defence. The project aims to develop a novel experimentally-validated multiscale theory, with associated models, for characterising and predicting the complete dynamic fracture process of brittle materials. This theory is expected to generate close-to-reality simulations critical for understanding fundamental aspects of energy di ....Energy dissipation characterisation in dynamic brittle fracture. Energy dissipation in dynamic fracture of brittle materials is pivotal in mining, civil engineering and defence. The project aims to develop a novel experimentally-validated multiscale theory, with associated models, for characterising and predicting the complete dynamic fracture process of brittle materials. This theory is expected to generate close-to-reality simulations critical for understanding fundamental aspects of energy dissipation in dynamic fracture. The outcomes will enable an optimised control of the fragment size in block cave mining and mineral processing, forecast and prevent fatal rock bursts in underground mines, and minimise catastrophic failures in critical infrastructures challenged by extreme loading, e.g. explosions.Read moreRead less