Other Advanced Batteries
Our research group is involved in research activities related to development of materials for application in other advanced batteries such as:
Metal-air batteries
The bottleneck in advancement of metal-air batteries is the development of efficient oxygen electrodes to speed up intrinsically sluggish oxygen reduction (ORR) and evolution (OER) reactions. In our group, we have been done extensive efforts to develop highly-efficient and low-cost, non-precious oxygen catalysts like oxides, sulfides and metal-free electrocatalysts. Some of these materials have been employed as bifunctional catalysts to fabricate gas diffusion electrodes, demonstrating excellent properties as air-cathodes for rechargeable Zn-air batteries.
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Zn-MnO2 batteries
Primary Zn-Mn batteries are one of the cheapest chemistries in energy storage technologies. Recently, the limited reversibility of this technology has been demonstrated. In our group we are interested in overcoming the present limitation associated to rechargeability by following several strategies i) novel designs involving flow electrolytes, ii) developing advanced electrolytes, iii) stablishing “smart charging protocols” and iv) implementing semi-solid MnO2 electrodes.
Selected publications:
Pendashteh, A., Palma, J., Anderson, M., Marcilla, R. “NiCoMnO4nanoparticles on N-doped graphene: Highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction/evolution reactions”. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 2017,201, pp. 241-252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2016.08.044
Pendashteh, A., Palma, J., Anderson, M., Vilatela J.J., Marcilla, R. “Doping and defect engineering of self-standing CNT fibers and use as air-cathodes in flexible solid-state rechargeable Zn-air batteries”. ACS Applied Energy Materials, 2018,1 (6), 2434-2439. DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.8b00583
R&D Projects:
Cadfunes_- Computer aided Design of Functional Nanomaterials for Energy Storage Applications
The project aims to a computational design of molecules for energy storage applications. It comprises of a synergistic computational experimental approach for the design and synthesis of new improved i) redox flow and metal air batteries and ii) electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction and the oxygen evolution reaction.
E3Tech - Excellence Network on Environmental and Energy Applications of the Electrochemical Technology
This Network gathers together the experience in environmental and energy applications of electrochemical technology of ten research groups with the aim to exert great impact on the promotion of the research on electrochemical technology and the implementation of this type of technology in the industry. With this Network, we aim to promote the electrochemical technology among the industries of our country and to raise the level of the Spanish Electrochemical Technology to the highest standards as required at the international level.