Dmitry Shchukin awarded €2 million ERC Consolidator grant

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Professor Dmitry Shchukin
Professor Dmitry Shchukin

Professor Dmitry Shchukin from the Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy has been awarded a €2 million European Research Council (ERC) 2014 Consolidator Grant.

The main vision of the project titled ENERCAPSULE (Nanoencapsulation for Energy Storage and Controlled Release) is the development of nanoencapsulation technologies based on switchable nanoscale barriers for novel generation of controlled energy storage and delivery systems. These systems will be based on the "smart" nanocontainers (size below 200 nm) loaded with the energy-enriched active components: materials for thermal energy (both latent and based on chemical reactions) storage and substances for bioenergy (ATP or its components) storage for synthetic biology platforms.

The breakthrough nature of the proposed project is the protection of the nanoscaled energy-enriched materials against environment during storage and controlled release of the encapsulated energy on demand only using both inherent properties of nanocontainer shell or biomimetic nanovalves introduced as shell components. Another main objective of the project is to study the structure and surface-to-volume properties of the energy enriched materials dispersed and encapsulated on nanoscale.

At the end of the project, developed novel energy storage and delivery systems will be implemented within one network having several mechanisms for release and uptake of energy, which can be activated depending on type and intensity of the external demand.

This project will open an avenue for new nanoscale technologies for polyenergy storage and personalised energy demand systems.