New paper published in Chemistry – A European Journal on promising strategies to hybridize electrically conductive nanocarbon and metal oxides with high ion intercalation capacity.
The International Nanoscience Student Conference (INASCON) is taking place this year in Trondheim, Norway. On August 8th, Simon Fleischmann gives an oral presentation entitled “Design of carbon/metal oxide hybrids for electrochemical energy storage”. On August 9th, Jaehoon Choi gives an oral presentation entitled “Synthesis and characterization of a nanostructured lamellar vanadium disulfide / carbon hybrid material”.
New paper published in ChemSusChem shows the high desalination performance that can be achieved with the use of lignin-derived activated carbon. Considering the low cost and high availability of lignin, lignin-derived activated carbons are very attractive electrode materials. Our work show the importance to carefully balance the potential and charge of a desalination cell and to carefully consider the intrinsic chemical charge. Only by doing so, we were able to capitalize on the beneficial properties of lignin-derived activated carbon; a “conventional” symmetric cell yielded only a very poor performance instead.
New paper published in ChemSusChem on the use of ion-specific insertion potentials to switch the ion-uptake preference of titanium disulfide. Our proof of concept work exemplifies the switchable preference of titanium disulfide to uptake either Cs or Mg. We expect our concept to be adaptable to many other ionic systems and other electrode materials
New paper published in Batteries & Supercaps on the enhanced rate handling ability of valence-tuned lithium titanate for use in lithium-ion batteries. Our work was done in collaboration with Bosch and is being featured on the front cover of the inaugural issue of the journal.
New paper published in ACS Applied Energy Materials on the use of the MicroJet reactor for the synthesis of SiOC beads for lithium-ion battery applications. This work was in collaboration with Guido Kickelbick of Saarland University.
New article published in Energy Storage Materials on the use of ionic liquids in asymmetric hybrid supercapacitors. This work was done in cooperation with two industrial partners: Bosch and Iolitec.
Nicolas Jäckel has successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Structure and properties of supercapacitor and lithium-ion battery electrodes: The role of material, electrolyte, binder, and additives”.
New paper published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces on molybdenum oxide / carbon hybrids for energy storage. Using atomic layer deposition, our work highlights the importance of nanoscale material engineering to yield an optimized performance of hybrid lithium ion capacitors. This work was in collaboration with the INP Greifswald, which is a sister Leibniz institute.
Welcome new group members Marc Schmidt, Maike Ulbricht, and Yuan Zhang! Ms. Ulbricht and Mr. Schmidt are our new student interns from Saarland University. Ms. Zhang starts as a PhD student working on Faradaic materials and has a master’s degree from Ulm University.
New paper published in Desalination moves our concept of concentration-gradient membrane CDI to a new level: by using an organic electrolyte in one compartment of a 3-channel setup, it is possible to operate the electrode in that compartment at an electrode potential much higher than for an aqueous electrolyte. Thereby, a high desalination capacity of more than 60 mg/g NaCl can be achieved at a stable cell voltage of 2.4 V.
New article published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A on the use of optimized anatase titanium dioxide / carbon onion hybrid electrodes for lithium-ion batteries with enhanced charge storage performance.
New article published in Chemistry – A European Journal on the synthesis and application of gyroidal titania/carbon hybrid electrodes for lithium-ion anodes with high areal an volumetric capacity.
This year, we have to oral presentations at the Annual Spring Meeting of the Materials Research Society (MRS) in Phoenix, USA. Simon Fleischmann gives a talk entitled “Tailored Mesoporous Carbon/Vanadium Pentoxide Hybrid Materials for Pseudocapacitive Lithium and Sodium Intercalation” on April 3rd. This work was in collaboration with Lars Borchardt (TU Dresden). Aura Tolosa gives a talk entitled “Hybrid titanium-niobium oxide/carbon electrospun nanofibers as lithium-ion battery electrodes” on April 6th.
New paper published in Fluid Phase Equilibria on the systematic comparison of force field models for the molecular dynamic simulation of the interface of gold and ionic liquids. This work was in collaboration with Guang Feng (Huazhong University of Science and Technology).
New paper published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering on the use of molybdenum carbide MXene with divacancy ordering for the effective desalination of brackish water and sea water. This work also provides the first chemical online monitoring evidence of anion intercalation in MXene and extends the use of 2D intercalation materials for the desalination of brackish water to seawater concentrations. The material synthesis was developed and carried out by our research collaborators at Linköping University, Sweden (Johanna Rosen).
New paper published in Sustainable Energy & Fuels on energy storage electrodes obtained from electrodeposition of hydrated vanadium pentoxide on nanoporous carbon. This work was done in collaboration with the Korea University of Technology and Education (Yoon-Chae Nah).
New paper published in Advanced Sustainable Systems on the use of ordered mesoporous carbon with a high volume of micropores for electric double-layer capacitors. This work was in collaboration with Martin Oschatz & Markus Antonietti (Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces,).
New paper published in ChemSusChem. Our joint work with the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP Greifswald) demonstrates mixed Ti-Nb metal oxide electrodes for lithium ion application. Using electrospinning, the fiber mats are free of binder, free-standing, and can be directly used as electrodes. Per nanoscale engineering, the fibers also already contained sufficient amounts of conductive carbon within each fiber, so that no additional conductive phase needed to be added.
New paper published in ChemSusChem on a new multi-channel system to significantly boost the desalination capacity for capacitive deionization.