Collaborator Christian Kozwara presents joint work at the Joint Annual Meeting of Swiss and Austrian Physical Society (SPS/ÖPG) meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. His presentation is entitled “Electrode swelling during ion electrosorption in carbon based supercapacitors”.

New paper published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces on in situ electrochemistry. Using electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance methodology, we can discern different mechanical responses of binder materials, such as polyvinyldifluoride or sodium carboxymethyl cellulose. This work was in collaboration with the Aurbach Group at Bar Ilan University, Israel.

Simon Fleischmann is presenting work at the International Nanoscience Student Conference (INASCON) in Bristol, UK. His oral presentation is entitled “Hybridization of carbon/metal oxides for electrochemical energy storage”.

Christian Prehal from the Institute of Physics at Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria) is presenting joint work on in situ tracking of ion electrosorption in nanoporous carbon at the XXVI International Materials Research Congress (IMRC) in Cancun, Mexico. The invited lecture is entitled “Structure and kinetics of ions in nanoporous carbon supercapacitors studied by in situ X-ray scattering and atomistic modelling”.

New paper published in Sustainable Energy & Fuels on the use of the microjet reactor for the synthesis of CDC beads. CDC (carbide derived carbon) was obtained from polymer derived ceramic beads. By adjusting the vinyl / phenyl ratio, the pore size structure was modified. Nanoporous CDC beads showed a high suitability for use as supercapacitor electrodes. This work was in collaboration with Guido Kickelbick (inorganic solid-state chemistry, Saarland University).

New paper published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A on the use of molbdenum disulfide / carbon nanotube electrodes for Faradaic deionization. Our work establishes membrane-free electrochemical desalination with a symmetric cell design that allows energy efficient deionization of saline media of low (5 mM) or high (500 mM) NaCl concentration.

New paper published in Electrochimica Acta on the influence of carbon distribution on the electrochemical performance and stability of lithium titanate / carbon electrodes. The carbon distribution is essential to ensure electric conduits throughout the electrode and lack thereof may severely degrade the electrochemical performance stability (not just energy density and power handling).

Simon Fleischmann and Marco Zeiger are participating at this years installment of the CARBON conference in Melbournce, Australia. Both our PhD students received also a travel fellowship of the German Academic Exchange Organization (DAAD) to cover the conference trip costs. On July 26th, Marco Zeiger is giving a talk called “Designing the carbon/vanadia interface for hybrid electrochemical energy storage” and Simon Fleischmann gives an oral presentation with the title “Carbon onions as substrate/conductive additive for asymmetric vanadia supercapacitor anodes”.

New paper published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces on the complementary use of in situ small angle X-ray scattering and electrochemical dilatometry to track the expansion of nanoporous carbon based on hierarchic pore architectures. Our data underline the importance of micropores for the volume changes occuring during electrochemical cycling. This work was in collaboration with Montanuniversität Leoben (Oskar Paris) and Universität Salzburg (Nicola Hüsing).

Our team has several contributions to the 5th International Symposium on Enhanced Electrochemical Capacitors (ISEEcap’17) in Jena.

  • Collaborator Bastian Etzold (TU Darmstadt) is presenting on July, 11th, at 10:00 AM the following talk: “Core-shell carbide-derived carbons as platform for high-performance electrochemical energy storage and electrocatalysis”
  • Volker Presser is presenting on July, 11th, at 10:40 AM the following talk: “Redox-enabling nanoporous carbons for high-performance energy storage”
  • Nicolas Jäckel is presenting on July, 12th, at 3:45 PM the following talk: “Electrochemical in-situ tracking of volumetric changes in two-dimensional metal carbides (MXenes) in ionic liquids”
  • Collaborator Christian Koczwara (Montanuniversität Leoben) is presenting on July, 13th, at 12:10 AM the following talk: “In-situ small angle X-ray scattering as a novel tool to study ion electrosorption in supercapacitor electrodes”

Juhan Lee and Pattarachai Srimuk (Bank) are presenting works at the 2017 International Conference on Capacitive Deionization, Electrosorption & Electrodialysis in Seoul, Korea. On July 6th, Juhan is giving a talk entitled “Pseudocapacitive desalination of high concentrated saline water via vanadium pentoxide decorated multiwall carbon nanotubes”, and on the same day, Bank is speaking about “Desalination via ion intercalation of MXene”.

New paper published in Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry on the mechanochemistry-assisted synthesis of nanoporous carbons for use in carbon supercapacitors. The paper is the latest outcome of our collaboration with the junior investigator team of Lars Borchardt at TU Dresden.

Welcome visiting PhD student Rafael Linzmeyer Zornitta! Our guest scientist is visiting from the Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil, more precisley, from the Laboratory of Environmental Technologies. He will be working with us in the coming year on capactive deionization.

Volker Presser was selected to give the Materials Today ‘Materials in Society’ Lecture at the 28th International Conference on Diamond and Carbon Materials (DCM’2017)  in Gothenberg, Sweden. Click here for the coverage of the Materials Today Webfeature online.

New paper published in Carbon on the use of activated carbon cloth for capacitive deionization. Our work dissects the influence of cell voltage and carbon pore structure on the performance during capacitive deionization operation using commercially available carbon cloth (trademark name Kynol).

Nicolas Jäckel is not only selected Fellow to participate at this year’s Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (impressive considering the tough competition internationally), but is also partaking in a TV show with the title “emotions instead of facts: do we mistrust science?”. The podium discussion includes also German Federal Minister for Education and Research Prof. Johanna Wanka, Prof. Helga Nowotny (former President of the European Research Council), and Andreas Sentker (Managing Editor at Die Zeit).

Tune in ARD Alpha on June 28th, at 8:15 PM (Link to the show).

Missed the show? Click here to read the transcript of the show.

Also click here to access the coverage of the event by the UdS web magazine “campus”.

New paper published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A on the promising features of the ZnI2 redox energy storage system. Using activated carbon cloth electrode and a Zn electrode, we achieve a high energy storage performance of 226 Wh/kg and a higher power of 20 kW/kg. The unique strength of iodide adsorption allows stable and efficient operation even without ion exchange membranes.

New paper published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) on extracting a 3D pore model of nanoporous carbons used for double-layer applications (esp. supercapacitors). This work was the latest outcome from our collaboration with Oskar Paris at Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria.

New paper published in ChemSusChem on using mechanochemical solvent-free synthesis of nitrogen doped nanoporous carbon for supercapacitor electrodes. This work stems from our collaboration with the Junior Investigator Group of Lars Borchardt (TU Dresden) and is being featured on the back cover of the current issue of ChemSusChem.

Today, Volker Presser has his 5-year anniversary as Group Leader at INM.