Sustainable carbon composite electrodes for energy storage

Research question

The proposed project uses state-of-art experimental procedures and theoretical modeling to develop functional carbon nanomaterials with large specific surface from bio-based and renewable low-cost precursors to replace or decrease use of rare energy demanding hazardous materials. These materials are fabricated combining bio-based polymers such as technical lignins, polyvinyl alcohol and cellulose nanofibers. The fabricated 3D-structures are carbonized to carbon nanofiber mats and carbon aerogels where the used material combinations together with the forming processes and carbonization will tailor the material structure, porosity, pore size distribution and the surface area. These carbon materials are impregnated with a solid polymer electrolyte such as epoxy-ionic liquid mixture to create solid-state multifunctional nanocomposite, in where the continuous carbon structure (network) as an ion conductive phase is also reinforcing the electrode. The fabricated materials are studied using advanced characterization methods such as DMTA, BET, AFM, HR-SEM, Raman, FTIR, XRD, WAXS, XMT and MAX IV, and the electrochemical properties of these hierarchical multistructural carbon nanocomposites are validated for energy storage applications.  

Sustainability aspects

SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production includes sustainable consumption and production patterns from a life cycle perspective, and this goes hand in hand with the development of a sustainable value chain means doing more and better with less by increasing the resource efficiency. Eco-design perspective applied in this project is expected to contribute to energy-efficient processes, with limited use of toxic chemicals. We will create novel solid structural composite electrodes, similar as structure battery approach, but using low cost and renewable carbon materials. This type of electrode material would improve the sustainability of electronic devices.