NEWS
IMSE is funding a seed project by Dr Maria Crespo at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Dr Aigerim Omirkhan and Dr Ieuan Seymour at the Department of Materials to upcycle waste PET into battery anodes. Dr Crespo is using anodes made of an upcycled carbon-tin composite to develop the next-generation of fast-charging battery systems, which are based on sodium rather than lithium cells.
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/235296/funding-interdisciplinary-projects-solve-todays-grand/
Sir William Wakeham award recognises early career researchers who have made a significant contribution to their research field and have advanced their professional development.
Big congratulations to Heather Au!
Graduation ceremony is always exciting though some years of postdoc might have passed during the wait. Congratulations to Dr Herou and Dr Luo once again!
Mengnan is a 3rd year PhD student in the group working on fuel cell electrode development from biomass. Join her with this video to find out some interesting energy material characterisations she did on a typical day.
Heteroatom doping has been proved to effectively enhance the sloping capacity, nevertheless, the high sloping capacity almost encounters a conflict with the disappointing initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE). Herein, we propose a heteroatom configuration screening strategy by introducing a secondary carbonization process for the phosphate-treated carbons to remove the irreversible heteroatom configurations but with the reversible ones and free radicals remained, achieving a simultaneity between the high sloping capacity and ICE (~250 mAh g-1 and 80%). The Na storage mechanism was also studied based on this “slope-dominated” carbon to revealed the reason of the absence of the plateau. This work could inspire to distinguish and filter the irreversible heteroatom configurations and facilitate the future design of practical “slope-dominated” carbon anodes towards high-power Na-ion batteries.
Click here for the full paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ange.202116394
Structural characterisations of carbon dots during low temperature pyrolysis show changes in graphitization and oxygen functionality. These structure features are well-correlated with electronic structure and solid-state optical properties.
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/nr/d1nr07015k
A novel controllable ice-templating strategy is utilized to tailor low-cost cellulose nanocrystal/polyethylene oxide-derived, vertically aligned carbon aerogels (VCAs) as anodes of sodium- and potassium-ion batteries. The construction of hierarchically tailored channels is tuned for shortening ion-transport pathways and ensuring structural integrity. These sustainable VCAs can be easily extended to multiple energy storage systems, demonstrating their universal potential.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.202110862
Electrochemical clean energy conversion and the production of sustainable chemicals are critical in the journey to realizing a truly sustainable society. To progress electrochemical storage and conversion devices to commercialization, improving the electrocatalyst performance and cost are of utmost importance. Research into dual-metal atom catalysts (DACs) is rising in prominence due to the advantages of these sites over single-metal atom catalysts (SACs), such as breaking scaling relationships for the adsorption energy of reaction intermediates and synergistic effects. This review provides an examination of the fundamental theoretical principles and experimental electrochemical performance of DACs in idealized half cells, as well as fuel cells, before proceeding to analyze the methods used for producing and identifying DACs. Current challenges and potential future research directions of DACs are also discussed.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aenm.202102715
Congratulations to Sabina Nicolae on passing her PhD viva!
In the run up to COP26, Royal Society of Chemistry convened a series of events on chemical science’s role in tackling sustainability and climate change challenges, exploring opportunities and inspirational stories from across the global chemical science community, including many speakers from the Faraday Institution, the UK's flagship battery research programme.
Professor Titirici joined the discussion on beyond lithium ion batteries, covering the cutting edge chemistry underlying next generation battery innovations, their potential, their limitations and their pathways to mass adoption.
Watch the recording here!
Here is the whole series of Chemistry and COP26 events on RSC.
BBC Inside Science is a weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
Click here to join Professor Titirici on understanding how food waste may help with the development of a more sustainable generation of batteries.
Professor Magda Titirici was interviewed on Sky News Climate Live Show on 24 Aug and shared our approaches to tackle the climate crisis by transferring biomass waste into energy storage and conversion materials.
Recording of the interview can be found here.
The Kavli Medal and Lecture is awarded annually for excellence in all fields of science and engineering relevant to the environment. The medal is of bronze gilt and is accompanied by a gift of £1,000.
Professor Magda Titirici, Chair in Sustainable Energy Materials in the Department of Chemical Engineering, was awarded the medal for her outstanding contributions to advancing the sustainability of energy storage and conversion technologies by performing interdisciplinary research at the interface between electrochemistry, materials science and chemical engineering.
https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/awards/kavli-medal-lecture/
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/228713/imperial-academic-awarded-royal-society-medal/
Atomically dispersed transition metal-nitrogen-carbon catalysts are emerging as low-cost electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells. However, a cost-effective and scalable synthesis strategy for these catalysts is still required, as well as a greater understanding of their mechanisms. Herein, iron, nitrogen co-doped carbon spheres (Fe@NCS) have been prepared via hydrothermal carbonization and high-temperature post carbonization. It is determined that FeN4 is the main form of iron existing in the obtained Fe@NCS. Two different precursors containing Fe2+ and Fe3+ are compared. Both chemical and structural differences have been observed in catalysts starting from Fe2+ and Fe3+ precursors. Fe2+@NCS-A (starting with Fe2+ precursor) shows better catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction. This catalyst is studied in an anion exchange membrane fuel cell. The high open-circuit voltage demonstrates the potential approach for developing high-performance, low-cost fuel cell catalysts.
Professor Magda Titirici outlines the role of graphite in battery technology and how the latest research is helping to shape and achieve net zero targets in the interview with Lisa Carnwell, Managing Editor at Innovation News Network.
https://www.innovationnewsnetwork.com/graphite-battery-research-road-net-zero/14007
Professor Magda Titirici has been named by the IOM3 as the Griffith Medal and Prize winner 2021 in recognition of her distinguished work in the field of materials science.
Professor Titirici’s award highlights her international recognition in the field of sustainable energy materials, based on her ground-breaking scientific discoveries in sustainable materials energy storage and conversion technologies. To date she has 250 publications with over 25,000 citations, and she has been part of the Clarviate 1% top cited global researchers over the past 4 years.
The judging panel also noted her passion for educating younger sustainable materials scientists of the future and for outreach activities, including her involvement in the ‘I Can Be’ charity which inspires young girls from under-privileged backgrounds to pursue science and engineering.
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/223253/professor-magda-titirici-recognised-distinguished-materials/
Silvia Fabero is awarded with the Bansal Bursary, which is donated by Dr Vik Bansal (a former graduate of the Department) and presented to the highest ranking of our graduates who continues to do a PhD in the Department in recognition of exceptional merit and potential.
Mengnan Wang is awarded the Burkett Scholarship, which was established in the Department of Chemical Engineering to recognise the outstanding achievements of the PhD student in first or second year. The Scholarship is donated by Dr Richard Burkett, an alumnus of the Department with a distinguished industrial career.
Congratulations to the well-deserved awards!
