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New paper published in Advanced Materials Interfaces on SnO2/MXene batteries

New paper published on “Unraveling the Electrochemical Mechanism in Tin Oxide/MXene Nanocomposites as Highly Reversible Negative Electrodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries” in Advanced Materials Interfaces.

As the demand for power and energy storage continues to grow, we researchers are constantly exploring new ways to improve battery performance. One promising approach involves using conversion/alloying materials, such as tin oxide, to design high-performance lithium-ion batteries. While these materials show excellent performance and ease of preparation, they often suffer from mechanical instabilities during cycling that limits their usefulness. This issue can be addressed (and overcome) by combining tin oxide with MXene.

In this study, we prepared a 50/50 (by mass) tin oxide / Ti-MXene (SnO2/Ti3C2Tz) nanocomposite and optimized it as a negative electrode for lithium-ion batteries. The result? A nanocomposite that delivers over 500 mAh/g for 700 cycles at 0.1 A/g and demonstrates excellent rate capability, with 340 mAh/g at 8 A/g.

The success of this nanocomposite lies in the synergistic behavior of its two components, which we confirmed through ex situ chemical, structural, and morphological analyses. Not only does this knowledge allow us to formulate a reaction mechanism with lithium-ions that provides partial reversibility of the conversion reaction, but it also opens up new possibilities for designing high-performance lithium-ion batteries.

Thanks to our great team of collaborators:

Team Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico – RSE SpA & Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca:
Antonio Gentile
Chiara Ferrara
Stefano Marchionna
Riccardo Ruffo

Team INM-Leibniz Institute for New Materials:
Stefanie Arnold
Volker Presser

Team Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Yushu Tang
Julia Maibach
Christian Kübel

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New article published in ChemSusChem on degradation of dye pollutants via Sb-SnO2 nanodesigned materials

Our research team has published an article in ChemSusChem on the promising use of stable and efficient SnO2 electrodes for degrading refractory organic pollutants in wastewater treatment. Our approach involved the preparation of Ti3+ self-doped urchin-like rutile TiO2 nanoclusters (TiO2-xNCs) on a Ti mesh substrate using hydrothermal and electroreduction methods, which served as an interlayer for the deposition of Sb-SnO2. Our TiO2-xNCs/Sb-SnO2 anode exhibited a high oxygen evolution potential and strong *OH generation ability, resulting in improved degradation performance for rhodamine B, methylene blue, alizarin yellow R, and methyl orange. Our unique rutile interlayer also extended the anode lifetime sixfold due to its good lattice match with SnO2 and three-dimensional concave-convex structure. Overall, our work highlights the importance of designing interlayer crystal forms and structures for achieving efficient and stable SnO2 electrodes in addressing dye wastewater problems. This work was done in collaboration with our colleagues from Chongqing University.

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Welcome new Ph.D. student Liying Xue

Welcome new Ph.D. student Liying Xue! Liying is from Guangxi University, China, and will be working on high entropy materials

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Welcome visiting Humboldt Fellow Syed Tauqir Ali Sherazi

Welcome to our team, Prof. Dr. Syed Tauqir Ali Sherazi! Having been awarded the prestigious Georg Forster Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he will be working on next-generation water remediation technologies. Our visiting Fellow is Professor at COMSATS University Islamabad Abbottabad Campus in Pakistan.

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