New paper published in Rare Metals on oxygen vacancy–engineered Bi–Mn–Al oxide / reduced
graphene oxide for high–performance supercapacitors. This work introduces oxygen-vacancy-rich Bi2O3/Mn3O4/Mn2AlO4(OV)/rGO multiphase heterostructures that accelerate ion transport and boost conductivity, enabling higher operating voltage and markedly improved supercapacitor energy and power performance (supported by DFT).
New paper published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. We present a mildly synthesized aluminum layered double hydroxide (Al-LDH) electrode that couples chemical adsorption with electrochemical release to recover lithium at neutral pH, eliminating harsh acids or bases and minimizing secondary pollution. It achieves an average Li+ uptake of 57.6 mg/g with strong Li+ over Na+ selectivity (vs. 1.0 mg/g for commercial Al(OH)₃ over 15 cycles), positioning Al-LDH as a scalable, green candidate for next-generation direct lithium extraction.
Delvina Tarimo gives an oral presentation on “Influence of Porous Structure, Sulfur Loading, and Cathode/Solid Electrolyte Interphase Formation Using Carbonate and Ether-Based Electrolyte for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries”
Two oral contributions to the DLE Symposium in Karlsruhe, Germany, from our team:
Cansu Kök: Tailored MXene electrodes for selective and stable electrochemical lithium recovery in aqueous solutions (oral)
Stefanie Arnold: Electrochemical perspectives for Li-ion battery recycling (oral)
Our team presents our energy research at the Citizen’s Festival in Saarbrücken, in celebration of the German Unification Day. From age 5 to 65, many participated in building own small water-electrolyte-based coin cell batteries – becoming honorary battery experts 🔋Thanks for the strong effort and hour-long dedication of Stefanie Arnold, Jean Gustavo Ruthes de Andrade, Asia Sarycheva, and Anna Seltmann 🌻
We have had the privilege to work with Anna Seltmann for quite some time – she re-joins now our team as our second technician and we are looking forward to the many exciting adventures and scientific discoveries ahead of us!
Welcome to our new Postdoc, Nicolas Huth! He will work with us on battery materials and technologies.
Welcome new group member Burak Ölmez! He will be working on high performance battery electrodes in his new role as a Ph.D. student in our team.
Saeed Borhani presents our collaborative work on “Iron-loaded carbon spherogels as sustainable electrode materials for high-performance lithium-ion batteries” at the Evonik meets Science 2025 in Heidelberg (Germany). The poster won also the best poster award. Congratulations!
Liying Xue presents a poster on our work on multi-component composition materials at the at the Faraday Discussion on “High-entropy alloy nanostructures: from theory to application” by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in London (UK). Thanks to our external collaborators Chaochao Dun and Oliver Janka!
Our recent work on “Competing ion effects and electrolyte optimization for electrochemical lithium extraction from spent lithium iron phosphate battery cathodes” has been featured on the front cover of RSC Energy Advances.
Several contributions from our team at the 76th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) in Main, Germany.
Volker Presser: Electrochemical lithium-ion separation (oral)
Stefanie Arnold: Electrochemical perspectives for Li-ion battery recycling (oral)
Delvina J. Tarimo: Influence of porous structure, sulfur loading, and cathode/solid electrolyte interphase formation using carbonate and ether-based electrolyte for lithium-sulfur batteries (oral)
Mingren Liu: Electron-rich niobium oxide subnanoclusters boosting charge transfer for highly reversible Na-S Batteries (poster)
Welcome to our new Postdoc, Dr. Asia Sarycheva! She will support our research activities relating to MXene and material characterization capitalizing on her many skills and expertise. We are looking forward to the joint work and time ahead!
Liying Xue presents our work on multi-component composition materials at the at the 40th topical conference of the International Society of Electrochemistry with the exciting topic of interfacial electrochemistry and related topics. Her poster has the title: “Multi-element synergy to enhance the cycling performance of oxalates as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries” and she will present during the poster session in Changchun, China. Thanks to our collaborators: Chaochao Dun and Oliver Janka.
New paper published in ACS Applied Energy Materials on lithium-sulfur batteries. Our collaborative work explored microporous carbon cathodes with carefully tuned pore sizes, tested in both carbonate- and ether-based electrolytes. Our study shows how pore structure and cathode–electrolyte interphase formation impact cycling stability and sulfur utilization. With optimized microporosity, we achieved over 50 mass % sulfur loading and improved performance in carbonate electrolytes. Thanks to all authors (in order of the manuscript) Delvina Tarimo (PhD), Francisco J. Garcia-Soriano, Alen Vizintin, and Christian Prehal.
New paper published on electrochemical lithium-ion battery recycling in Energy Advances. We demonstrate a sustainable, energy-efficient electrochemical route to recover Li⁺ from spent LFP using carbon-coated LFP electrodes, with NaOH-adjusted electrolytes giving the highest efficiency and an average removal capacity of 18 mg Li per 1 g of LFP over 50 cycles. Capacity fades with prolonged cycling (especially with competing Na⁺ and K⁺) highlighting the need to optimize electrolyte conditions and electrode stability while exploring alternative pH control and scalable designs for circular, low-impact battery recycling.
We are grateful for the Minister to take time to visit the science exhibition ship MS Wissenschaft, anchoring in Saarbrücken, Germany. We discussed climate change, scientific discoveries, basic and applied research – specifically as it pertains to our research on lithium-ion battery recycling.
New collaborative paper (Victor H. R. Souza) published in Journal of Power Sources. To support the energy transition, we developed freestanding electrodes combining reduced graphene oxide, polyaniline, and nickel hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF), which is a promising material for aqueous batteries due to its long cycle life and redox-active structure. These rGO/PAni/NiHCF films achieve high specific capacities (up to 83 mAh/g) and integrate both active material and current collector in one, offering a compact and efficient solution for energy storage.
We are grateful for the Minister visiting our group to learn more about the EFRE-funded eLiFlow project to continuously harvest lithium-ions from aqueous solutions.
We enjoyed our annual group retreat – due to a booking issue, reduced to one day, but no less fun! We enjoyed our group dinner, as won by popular vote, in the Vietnamese restaurant Yoko in Saarbrücken. For the scientific talks, we mixed things up: rather than all Ph.D. students and Postdocs presenting theirworks… each one was assigned a partner with a topic as different as can be within our group – and each person needed to present his/her partner’s research. 🚀
As another highlight, we had Hanna Sänger from Arenus Akademie (Tatjana Heidemann) to give a seminar on mental health. Mental health is as important as physical health – yet, it is met by stigma and taboo, as the mind reminds an opaque mystery and people rather accept what they can “see” over what they feel. Nonetheless, how we feel about ourselves and work is of highest importance and the foundation for a sustainable, productive, and healthy work life. Thanks for giving us an introductoin in this important topic (in excellent English that put myself to shame).
Thanks for our Humboldt-visitor, long-term collaborator, and true friend Michael Naguib for joining us! 💡We also got our traditional group picture done, once more, by the one and only Uwe Bellhäuser 🌼 and thank Elke Bubel for helping us so much for securing the photoshooting spot in front of the NTNM library! 📚
Looking forward to our next retreat already! And we will make sure to find a replacement appointment for some well-overdue minigolf ⛳
