Tiny portholes for a big future: Porous materials as the basis for the next energy revolution

In an article in the journal Science, researchers from the Technion present a long-term blueprint for developing the world of energy around porous structures – from materials for producing and storing energy, through energy-efficient chips, to applications in biomedical engineering.

Researchers from the Technion present a long-term roadmap for the development of the energy sector in the journal Science. According to them, the future of this field lies in technological breakthroughs in porous materials, and its impact extends across a variety of fields from computing systems to biomedical engineering. The lead authors of the article, Prof. David Eisenberg and former doctoral student Dr. Eliyahu Farber from the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, explain that porous materials are already used in a variety of fields in the world of energy, including extracting fuel from deep underground and conducting electric charge in batteries. "Porous materials," says Prof. Eisenberg, "are essentially a fascinating meeting point between being and non-being, between matter and emptiness. Each of these 'parts' can conduct energy, whether it be in the form of matter, electric charge, heat, radiation, and even mechanical pressure."

Porous materials are a vital building block in most technologies used for energy production, conversion, and storage. The Technion researchers state in the article that the ability to improve technologies for these applications depends on the smart and precise design of a dedicated porous structure tailored to the desired application. Such a design improves mass and charge transfer in the porous material and improves the energy efficiency of the system.

The researchers analyzed a range of advanced technologies, including biomimetic inspiration, to identify trends in the development of porous structures in various technologies. Among the applications that the future holds: manufacturing chips using porous materials – a move that could reduce the power consumption of electronic and computing systems – and ways to absorb mechanical energy in implanted joints.

Eliyahu Farber began working on the research during his PhD, and later continued while working as a researcher at a flow battery startup in Munich, Germany. Even after October 7, he continued to think about porous materials, even while serving a long term in the reserve in a tank in Gaza. In the article, the researchers present basic principles that are valid for different size scales, from single atoms to the macroscopic level. Based on these principles, they formulated general models for predicting energetic properties and improving processes for energy production and storage.

The authors hope that the models presented in the article will lead to accelerated research and development of new materials for a variety of applications – solar cells, batteries, electrochemical cells, and fuel production – and to meeting essential energy goals at the global level.

The research was supported by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure.

For the full article in the journal Science

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