Dr. Jaime S. Sanchez, postdoctoral researcher of the Electrochemical Processes Unit (ECPU) has participated in the international conference ChemOnTubes 2022 related to the chemistry and functionalization of graphene and carbon nanotubes from April 24th – April 28th 2022. The meeting took place in the charming seaside Miramar Palace of Donostia - San Sebastian on La Concha Bay in the Basque Cantabrian coast of Spain. Jaime contributed to the excellency of the 8th edition of this congress with an oral talk entitled “All Electrochemical Nanofabrication of Stacked Ternary Metal Sulfide/Graphene Electrodes for Aqueous Rechargeable Batteries”.
In the last weeks, new people have been incorporated in the ECPU. We would like to welcome Irene Hormigos, Sergio Pinilla and Pratiksha Srivastava.
Irene Hormigos will work as a lab technician for both ECPU and BTPU, after completing an intership at the ECPU.
Sergio Pinilla is an E4F-MSCA postdoctoral fellow. After obtaining his PhD from UAM (Spain) in the field of silicon nanowires for energy storage, he did a research stay at Münster Electrochemical Energy Technology (MEET) (Germany), in the group of Prof. Martin Winter, to continue his research on nanostructured anodes for lithium-ion batteries. In 2019, he was awarded a MSCA fellowship to launch his own research line in the field of additive manufacturing of Li-ion batteries in the group of Prof. Nicolosi at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) until April 2022. Then he was awarded a second MSCA fellowship, under the program E4F with Iberdrola, to start his project “PoliSolidBat” at IMDEA Energy. This project aims to develop affordable solid-state batteries based on polymeric compounds that are also compatible with cheap and scalable printing technologies.
Pratiksha Srivastava is a postdoc, who will work for both ECPU and BTPU. She got her Ph.D. from University of Tasmania, Australia in 2021, and her research was focussed on “Development of bio-electrochemical system based constructed wetland technology for efficient wastewater treatment and resource recovery”. During her Ph.D. she had a research stay at Technical University of Braunsweig, Germany, funded by German Federal Ministry. Prior to joining IMDEA Energy she had a Postdoctoral position at Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain. At IMDEA Energy, her research focusses on microbial electrolysis cell for green hydrogen production.
The ECPU would like to welcome Ousmane Camara to our team. He is a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher (ESR) within the POLYSTORAGE training network. He obtained his master degree in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology in 2020 at the Polytechnique University of Milan. Ousmane carried out his master thesis project at Holst Centre in Eindhoven working on "Interfacial engineering of thin film solid state battery", where he got familiar with battery testing and electrochemistry in general. Before joining our group, he started his PhD at POLYMAT in San Sebastian in September 2020 and spent the first 18 months working on the synthesis of redox active polymer nanoparticles and their electrochemical characterization. At IMDEA Energy Institute he will pursue his PhD working with redox active polymer nanoparticles and their application in flowing battery systems.
The ECPU would like to welcome Dr. Jaime S. Sánchez to our team.
Dr. Jaime S. Sánchez is a chemical engineering graduate. He holds a PhD degree in the field of Electrochemistry and Materials Science by Autonoma University of Madrid (2019). His Thesis was entirely developed on the lab facilities of the Electrochemical Processes Unit at Imdea Energy, focused on the synthesis and investigation of graphene-based materials and their application in electrochemical energy storage devices. In this period, he enjoyed a research stay at the Fritz-Haber-Institute-Max Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin (Germany) studying the charge storage or catalysis mechanism of these materials, performing in-situ and operando experiments (e.g. X-ray absorption spectroscopy and XPS) at BESSY Synchrotron. After his PhD, he joined the 2D-Materials group of Vincenzo Palermo at Chalmers University of Technology (Gothenburg, Sweden) as a Postdoctoral Researcher, where he mainly developed composites for energy storage applications in the frame of one of the most important research initiatives in material science in Europe, the Graphene Flagship. He has been involved in several national and european research projects and he is author of 11 research articles included in SCI journals and more than 20 contributions to national and international scientific conferences. At Chalmers he had been also working on a project called "2D composites research at Chalmers" to bring a clear manufacturing/synthesis perspective into the research to scale solutions into future use in collaboration with companies such as Volvo or ABB, and he could start a new research line together with Prof. Leif Asp developing graphene-based cathodes for structural batteries, in order to increase energy storage capabilities in cars and airplanes, while maintaining a low vehicle weight.
Since January 2022, he is a postdoctoral researcher of the Electrochemical Processes Unit, leading the research line of inorganic materials for energy storage and conversion applications.
The Electrochemical Processes Unit (ECPU) of IMDEA Energy offers two (2) PhD projects in the framework of the INPhINIT Fellowships funded by La Caixa. This program offers 35 fellowships for early-stage researchers of any nationality to pursue their PhD studies in research centres accredited with the Spanish Seal of Excellence Severo Ochoa, María de Maeztu or Health Institute Carlos III and Portuguese units accredited as “excellent” or “exceptional” according to the evaluation of the Fundação de Ciência e Tecnologia.
Deadline for submission of the applications is: 27/01/2022 (14:00)
1) "New accelerated testing methodologies and aging models of lithium – ion batteries"
Description: Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) offer particularly high performance in terms of energy and power densities and are used in a variety of industrial domains. However, one of the most important unsolved problems for LIBs coupled to intermittent electricity generation systems and to vehicles for the electrification of transport is the lifetime estimation for each particular market application. Typically, to determine the exact number of charge and discharge operational cycles of LIBs before losing their capacity requires exhaustive aging testing under intense operational conditions of a vast number of battery cells that is a very resource and time‑consuming process.
The objective of this work is the systematic investigation of the operation of commercial LIBs following unconventional accelerated aging profiles that provide a realistic idea of the resilience to cyclic degradation. In addition, it is planned to elaborate a holistic battery system model that allows understanding and predicting battery life based on operating profiles. This model will be based on both physical principles and processed results using massive data analysis techniques and should be able to provide in-depth insight and estimation of the battery state of charge and the state of health. Also, it should provide sufficient information to take smart decisions in specific applications depending on its final targets (increase performance, reduce costs, improve quality of services…).
The particular challenge here is to gain a profound understanding of the correlation between the degradation mechanisms and the operational parameter conditions yielding an optimized battery lifetime.
Description: Solar Flow Batteries (SFBs) are a new type of devices that integrate solar energy conversion and electrochemical storage. The operation principle of SFBs is built on the working mechanism of RFBs and photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells. In SFBs, the solar energy absorbed by photoelectrodes is converted into chemical energy by charging up redox couples dissolved in electrolyte solutions in contact with the photoelectrodes. To deliver electricity on demand, the reverse redox reactions are carried out to release chemical energy stored in redox couples as one would do in the discharge of a normal redox flow battery (RFB). Well-designed, SFBs could represent a more cost-effective, efficient, and compact approach for stand-alone off-grid electrification, such as solar home systems in remote or rural areas.
This research project will address the following interconnected aspects: (1) Developing compatible and energy level matching photoelectrode materials and redox electrolytes to maximize the photocharging efficiency (i.e. solar-to-chemical efficiency, STC%), (2) full characterization of redox couples and photoelectrodes, (3) understand the fundamental aspects of interfaces between the photoelectrode and the redox electrolyte under illumination, and (4) design and testing of SFB devices.
This project is envisaged as a joint endeavor between two research units of IMDEA Energy; the Electrochemical Processes Unit with a proven experience on the development of RFB, and the Photoactivated Processes Unit with a strong background on Photo and Photo-electrochemical processes. In particular, both supervisors hold ongoing ERC-Consolidator Grants on Redox Flow Battteries (MFreeB / R.Marcilla) and Photoreduction processes (HyMAP / V. de la Peña O’Shea). This PhD project will take advantage of the solid background of both groups and will gather together the most recent achievements in RFB and photoelectrode to make a big contribution in the nascent field of Solar Flow Batteries.
The main objective of this PhD is the development of efficient Solar Redox Flow Batteries able to be charged with solar light by means of photoelectrodes which absorb the incident solar energy and transfer the generated electrons to charge up redox couples in the electrolytes. The development of compatible photoelectrodes and redox electrolytes and the design and testing of SFBs will be key activities of this project.
