Silvia provides a fascinating review on the role of ionomers in anion exchange membrane fuel cells and electrolysers. Read more about it in the journal of Advanced Materials by following the link below:
NanoGe conference blues!
A look back on the fantastic NanoGe conference held in sunny Torremolinos. Many of our group members gave insightful talks and presented posters to academics in the early stages of their careers as well as more experienced scientists. Keep your eye out for the numerous fruitful collaborations that materialise from last week!
Tititrici group annual hike
We completed our annual group hike in September in which we walked from Faversham to Whitstable along the beautiful coast line. Major thanks to Helen for organising!
Congratulations to Ruixuan on passing his PhD viva!
Congratulations to Richard Lobo for passing his PhD Viva!
Titirici group wins an award!
The Titirici group are extremely proud to have been awarded Imperial College London’s President’s Medal for Excellence in Research. See below the award being collected by Magda and group members: Matthew, Helen and Angus at the Presidents Awards 2023.
Congratulations to Johny Guo on passing his PhD viva!
VALUED programme launch
Magda hosted the official launch of the VALUED programme grant, the grant that is aimed to manufacture sustainable materials at scale whilst being guided by life cycle and technoeconomic assessment. Along with Magda’s introductory talk, several of he co-investigators on the grant introduced their projects and intended contribution to the ultimate goal. Make sure to follow VALUED twitter page to keep up to date with proceedings! VALUED (@VALUEDPG) / Twitter
Group members Matthew and Sarat present posters at STEM for Britain
STEM for Britain is an annual poster competition held in the Houses of Parliament intended to support and promote Britain's early-career research scientists and engineers. Matthew and Sarat took part in the competition and relished the opportunity to discuss their fantastic sustainable research with MPs and fellow early-careers research scientists.
DIGBAT project led by Magda to accelerate the development of sustainable batteries
£1.6 Million funding for DIGBAT project, led by Magda, has been provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The project will combine theory-led high throughput experimentation with data science and machine learning in order to progress the discovery and development of sustainable battery technologies and electrodes for sustainable e-fuels. Read more in the Imperial news article here: £1.6 million funding to accelerate alternative fuel and batteries research | Imperial News | Imperial College London
Chair in Emerging Technologies
Watch Magda’s interview discussing sodium-ion batteries and the role of the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies: Chair in Emerging Technologies (raeng.org.uk). The scheme uniquely offers funding and support over ten years to help with progressing emerging technologies.
Energy Storage and Conversion Workshop
Magda hosted a two day workshop along with colleagues from Imperial, welcoming Cine Energy (Center for Innovation on New Energies) from Brazil. Exciting talks were held in the South Kensington campus for two days and then more talks continued in White City for a final day on Solar Fuels.
BBC News Article on Lignin-Based Batteries
Batteries with materials from lignin covered in BBC News article regarding the future of sustainable materials for energy solutions. The Titirici group’s research received a special mention including a quote from Magda:
Separate research into lignin-derived carbon anodes, by Magda Titirici at Imperial College London in the UK and colleagues, suggests that it is possible to make conductive mats containing intricate, irregular carbon structures with lots of oxygen-rich defects. These defects appear to heighten the anode's reactivity with ions transferred from the cathode in sodium ion batteries, says Titirici, which in turn shortens charging times: "This conductive mat is fantastic for batteries."
Read the full article here:
Exciting plenary from Magda scheduled
Magda is scheduled to be a plenary speaker at Carbon2023 in Cancun, Mexico! The conference begins 16th of July and is packed with exciting speakers giving talks across a variety of carbon applications, including electrochemical processes. Find out more about the conference and programme below:
Sodium-ion Batteries Book in Press
"Sodium-Ion Batteries: Materials, Characterization, and Technology, 2 Volumes" book in press which covers the most recent research and emerging applications for all Na-ion battery enthusiasts and beyond! The book can now be pre-ordered (below) as a result of the great efforts from the editors: Magda, Philipp Adelhelm and Yong Sheng Hu as well as the many contributors from around the world.
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/search?pq=9783527347094%7Crelevance
£6.1M Grant Secured for Functional Bio-Materials
Magda secures £6.1M grant from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as the lead Principal Investigator. "Bio-derived and Bio-inspired Advanced Materials for Sustainable Industries" is a grant intended to assist in the development of functional material synthesis from or inspired by sustainable precursors. Thus, lowering CO2 emissions in order to help the UK reach the targeted zero emissions by 2050. This grant also brings together the best UK academics and key industrial partners which will accelerate novel pathways to manufacture advanced materials.
Bio-derived and Bio-inspired Advanced Materials for Sustainable Industries (VALUED) (ukri.org)
Titirici Group at Pint of Science
WASTE & FUELS OF THE FUTURE
How can we transition to a net-zero green economy? How do we create energy resources from waste materials? And how can these energy resources reinforce the circular economy?
Titirici group’s ambition is to recycle bio and plastic waste into advanced materials which are components of future batteries and fuel cells.
Professor Magda Titirici discussed what the sustainable solutions are for the next generation of energy storage and conversion technologies. It was exciting to see our research through the eyes of some very talented young artists and advocating for the urgency of developing and implementing sustainable technologies to save the planet.
Kavli Medal and Lecture 2022 given by Professor Magda Titirici
GREENBAT meets GREENCAT: towards delivering truly sustainable energy storage and conversion technologies
Professor Titirici’s research group and collaborators are working towards addressing this important challenge of creating sustainable materials based on widely available resources while creating a circular economy of recycling biowaste into advanced materials and implementing them in sustainable energy technologies, from new battery chemistries to important catalytic processes using renewable electricity for H2 production and use.
Watch the record here:
New Publication on Techno Economic and Lifecycle Analysis
Techno Economic and Lifecycle Analysis of Biomass Derived Anode Materials for Lithium and Sodium Ion Batteries Advanced Sustainable Systems!
This research examines the techno-economic and environmental performance of SIBs, using a “cradle-to-gate” life cycle assessment of cell manufacturing, comparing sodium-ion half cells (coin cells) with their lithium counterparts. An optimal charge capacity of 312.4 mAh g−1 for sodium-ion half-cells has been achieved using glucose-derived hard-carbons, a 45% charge capacity increase compared to lithium. Sodium half-cells are shown to be 18% cheaper compared to lithium. From the life cycle analysis, it is found that sodium-ion half-cells show the lowest environmental footprint across all impact categories compared to lithium. It can be concluded that sodium is a credible alternative to LIBs with a preference for SIBs when environmental factors are jointly considered with techno-economics.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adsu.202200047
Congratulations to Dr Alian Li for winning the IMSE multidisciplinary award!
Big congratulations to Dr Alian Li for winning the IMSE multidisciplinary award at the Chemical Engineering Department Postdoc Symposium!
