New paper published in Cell Press Physical Science on the use of sub-nanometer pores for capacitive deionization to enable membrane-free seawater desalination.

New paper published in Desalination with the title “Particle size distribution influence on capacitive deionization: Insights for electrode preparation”. Our work explores the particle size dispersity of commercially available activated carbon. No activated carbon powder is “perfect”, that is, every powder contains (a bit) larger and smaller particles. Size separation allows to capitalize on “one powder – several sizes” aspect. Comparing mixed-sized, small-size, and large-size activated carbon classes (of the same activated carbon powder), our work shows that large particles suffer from ion transport limitation, but so do electrodes composed of (well-packed) small particles. The best performance was found to be in the middle: a hierarchic mixture of larger and smaller activated carbon particles.

New paper published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. This work in collaboration with the teams of Markus Gallei and Guido Kickelbick (both at Saarland University) explores shear-induced co-assembly as a step towards creating unique (ordered) materials. The latter can be conveniently converted to metal oxide / carbon hybrids via thermal annealing. For example, titanium niobium oxide / carbon obtained this way profided 335 mAh/g at 10 mA/g and a capacity retention of 84% after 1000 cycles at 250 mA/g.

New article published on the exploration of high entropy materials in the digital age in Advanced Energy Materials. This work was done in collaboration with the KIT (via Ben Breitung and Leonardo Velasco) and is being featured on the front title page.

New paper published in the AAAS journal Research on the use of hollow / nanosheet / needle-like cobalt hydroxide for the use for high performance electrochemical desalination. This material architecture allows for rapid ion removal and high stability in absence of strain-build-up. This work was done in collaboration with the team of Jie Ma at Tongji University.

New paper published in Journal of Physical Chemistry C on the origin of better long-term electrochemical performance of silica-pillared MXene. This unique material provides enhanced performance as an lithium-ion battery electrode (ca. 300 mAh/g at 20 mA/g rate). Although larger volume changes are seen for the pillared MXene, this is not a detriment to the cycling stability. This work was done in collaboration with the teams of Nuria Tapia-Ruiz (Lancaster University) and Nuno Bimbo (now: University of Southampton).

New paper published in ACS Applied Polymer Materials on the use of redox-responsive 2-aminoanthraquinone core-shell particles for structural colors and carbon capture. This work was done in collaboration with the group of Markus Gallei (Saarland University), Karin Jacobs (Saarland University), and T. Alan Hatton (MIT).