Energy Materials

Anna Seltmann and Stefanie Arnold presented work at the EEIGM International Conference in Nancy, France.

vpresser — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Anna Seltmann and Stefanie Arnold presented work at the 13^th EEIGM International Conference on Advanced Materials Research (AMR) in Nancy, France. Anna Seltmann presented a poster with the title “Ionic Liquids as Electrolytes in Supercapacitors” and Stefanie Arnold gave a talk on “Hybrids for Electrochemical Technologies: From Batteries to Desalination and Closed-Loop Recycling”.

Anna Seltmann, Nicolas Huth, and Volker Presser at the MNU Federal Congress of the German Association for the Promotion of Mathematics and Science Education in Saarbrücken

vpresser — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 11:14:04 +0000

Anna Seltmann, Nicolas Huth, and Volker Presser were involved with the 116^th MNU Federal Congress of the German Association for the Promotion of Mathematics and Science Education in Saarbrücken, Germany.

Volker Presser gave a seminar talk with the title “Quo vadis BatterienMythen, Fakten und Entwicklung”.

Anna and Nicolas provided a hands-on workshop to build your own battery (BYOB) to create (and test) functional coin cells.

Anna Seltmann and Nicolas Huth present our group’s profile at the TraWeBa event “Trendsetter Battery” in Spiesen-Elversberg

vpresser — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Anna Seltmann and Nicolas Huth represent our team and outline our team’s profile at the TraWeBa event “Trendsetter Battery“.

New paper published in Battery Energy on intraparticle effects on lithium-sulfur battery performance

vpresser — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 06:23:47 +0000

New collaborative paper published in Battery Energy on “Intraparticular inhomogeneity limits capacity in lithium sulfur batteries with carbonate electrolyte”. This work shows that the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries with carbonate electrolytes is strongly governed by how the cathode-electrolyte interphase (CEI) forms inside nanoporous carbon host particles during the first discharge. Using cryogenic electron microscopy together with electrochemical analysis, we found that the CEI is not a uniform surface film but develops heterogeneously into the particle, leaving larger particles with inactive interior regions and therefore lower sulfur utilization. The results show that reducing carbon particle size improves capacity and rate performance, while also providing clear design guidelines for more efficient solid-state Li-S cathodes. Collaborative work with the groups of Christian Prehal and Alen Vizintin.

New paper published in Battery Energy on mixed transition metal oxalates for lithium-ion batteries

vpresser — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 07:00:00 +0000

In our work, we have developed a new multi-phase transition metal oxalate anode material for lithium-ion batteries by combining five transition metals in a simple co-precipitation process, creating a structure that improves both charge transport and structural stability during cycling. The best-performing composition, TMOx-2, showed strong long-term performance, retaining 827 mAh/g after 400 cycles at 100 mA/g and 498 mAh/g after 400 cycles at 500 mA/g. The study highlights how multi-phase design can enhance lithium storage performance without relying on complex synthesis routes, offering a promising strategy for next-generation high-performance battery materials.

Nikolaos Papadopolous present collaborative work on modelling of Si-electrodes for lithium-ion battery applications

vpresser — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Nikolaos Papadopolous gives an oral presentation at the 22^nd Symposium on Modeling and Experimental Validation
of Electrochemical Energy Technologies (ModVal 2026) in Lausanne, Switzerland. The presentation has the title “Electrochemical Modeling of Silicon in Lithium-Ion Batteries Using a Multi-Species, Multi-Reaction Framework with Atomistic Insights”.

New paper published in Advanced Functional Materials on flexible bimetallic phosphonate crystals for supercapacitor application

vpresser — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000

New collaborative paper spearheaded by Gündog Yücesan published in Advanced Functional Materials (and featured on the back cover). In this work, we introduce flexible bimetallic phosphonate crystals as a new class of energy-storage materials that combine mechanical flexibility with remarkable chemical stability and electrochemical activity. The material remains structurally stable across a broad pH range and delivers specific capacitances of around 140 F/g under mildly acidic and alkaline conditions, making it an attractive and more sustainable alternative to conventional supercapacitor electrodes.

Dr. Stefanie Arnold inducted into the Young Academy

vpresser — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Congratulations to Stefanie to be admitted to the Young Academy (Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz)! Since 2016, The Young Academy | Mainz has been the Academy’s dedicated programme for supporting emerging talent. Membership gives selected scientists, writers, and musicians the chance to build an interdisciplinary network and engage across fields. A key principle is the full and equal involvement of Young Academy members in the Academy’s activities. Active participation in meetings and events – and regular exchange with members of the established scholarly society – are therefore central to the programme. Members are also encouraged to shape the agenda themselves by organising events and launching new initiatives, especially through interdisciplinary working groups that pursue timely research questions developed independently by the members.

Welcome new Ph.D. student Ayush Gadpayle

vpresser — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the team! Ayush Gadpayle will be working on the Ec=m² Research Training Group and will explore MXene and the world of inter-layer functionality.

New paper on Fe-loaded carbon spherogels for high-performance lithium-ion batteries published in Chemistry of Materials (and featured on the cover)

vpresser — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 07:00:00 +0000

New paper published in Chemistry of Materials. This constitutes collaborative work between the Universität Salzburg (Michael Elsaesser, Saeid Borhani, Gregor Zickler), the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP Greifswald) e.V. (Antje Quade), and us (Stefanie Arnold, Le Thao). Congratulations to Stefanie Arnold for her debut as last-and-corresponding author!

The work has now been featured on the cover of the journal. Our paper reports a scalable synthesis of iron-loaded carbon spherogels with tunable iron content, where uniformly distributed iron nanoparticles are embedded in a porous, conductive carbon framework to create lithium-ion battery electrodes with high capacity and strong cycling stability. It shows that these materials can reach capacities up to 1190 mAh/g with Coulombic efficiencies above 99% over 300 cycles, and that the best performance comes from balancing iron redox activity with the structural stability of the carbon host rather than simply maximizing iron loading. Our work matters because it positions iron-loaded carbon spherogels as a more sustainable, cobalt-free and nickel-free route to high-performance conversion-type battery electrodes, addressing a central materials challenge in next-generation energy storage.