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- Tapia-Ruiz, Nuria, et al.
(author)
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2021 roadmap for sodium-ion batteries
- 2021
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In: Journal of Physics. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 2515-7655. ; 3:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Increasing concerns regarding the sustainability of lithium sources, due to their limited availability and consequent expected price increase, have raised awareness of the importance of developing alternative energy-storage candidates that can sustain the ever-growing energy demand. Furthermore, limitations on the availability of the transition metals used in the manufacturing of cathode materials, together with questionable mining practices, are driving development towards more sustainable elements. Given the uniformly high abundance and cost-effectiveness of sodium, as well as its very suitable redox potential (close to that of lithium), sodium-ion battery technology offers tremendous potential to be a counterpart to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in different application scenarios, such as stationary energy storage and low-cost vehicles. This potential is reflected by the major investments that are being made by industry in a wide variety of markets and in diverse material combinations. Despite the associated advantages of being a drop-in replacement for LIBs, there are remarkable differences in the physicochemical properties between sodium and lithium that give rise to different behaviours, for example, different coordination preferences in compounds, desolvation energies, or solubility of the solid-electrolyte interphase inorganic salt components. This demands a more detailed study of the underlying physical and chemical processes occurring in sodium-ion batteries and allows great scope for groundbreaking advances in the field, from lab-scale to scale-up. This roadmap provides an extensive review by experts in academia and industry of the current state of the art in 2021 and the different research directions and strategies currently underway to improve the performance of sodium-ion batteries. The aim is to provide an opinion with respect to the current challenges and opportunities, from the fundamental properties to the practical applications of this technology.
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2. |
- Palacin, M. R., et al.
(author)
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Roadmap on multivalent batteries
- 2024
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In: JPhys Energy. - 2515-7655. ; 6:3
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Battery technologies based in multivalent charge carriers with ideally two or three electrons transferred per ion exchanged between the electrodes have large promises in raw performance numbers, most often expressed as high energy density, and are also ideally based on raw materials that are widely abundant and less expensive. Yet, these are still globally in their infancy, with some concepts (e.g. Mg metal) being more technologically mature. The challenges to address are derived on one side from the highly polarizing nature of multivalent ions when compared to single valent concepts such as Li+ or Na+ present in Li-ion or Na-ion batteries, and on the other, from the difficulties in achieving efficient metal plating/stripping (which remains the holy grail for lithium). Nonetheless, research performed to date has given some fruits and a clearer view of the challenges ahead. These include technological topics (production of thin and ductile metal foil anodes) but also chemical aspects (electrolytes with high conductivity enabling efficient plating/stripping) or high-capacity cathodes with suitable kinetics (better inorganic hosts for intercalation of such highly polarizable multivalent ions). This roadmap provides an extensive review by experts in the different technologies, which exhibit similarities but also striking differences, of the current state of the art in 2023 and the research directions and strategies currently underway to develop multivalent batteries. The aim is to provide an opinion with respect to the current challenges, potential bottlenecks, and also emerging opportunities for their practical deployment.
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3. |
- Schlee, Philipp, et al.
(author)
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Free-standing supercapacitors from kraft lignin nanofibers with remarkable volumetric energy density
- 2019
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In: Chemical Science. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 2041-6539. ; 10:10, s. 2980-2988
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We have discovered a very simple method to address the challenge associated with the low volumetric energy density of free-standing carbon nanofiber electrodes for supercapacitors by electrospinning Kraft lignin in the presence of an oxidizing salt (NaNO3) and subsequent carbonization in a reducing atmosphere. The presence of the oxidative salt decreases the diameter of the resulting carbon nanofibers doubling their packing density from 0.51 to 1.03 mg cm−2 and hence doubling the volumetric energy density. At the same time, the oxidative NaNO3 salt eletrospun and carbonized together with lignin dissolved in NaOH acts as a template to increase the microporosity, thus contributing to a good gravimetric energy density. By simply adjusting the process parameters (amount of oxidizing/reducing agent), the gravimetric and volumetric energy density of the resulting lignin free-standing carbon nanofiber electrodes can be carefully tailored to fit specific power to energy demands. The areal capacitance increased from 147 mF cm−2 in the absence of NaNO3 to 350 mF cm−2 with NaNO3 translating into a volumetric energy density increase from 949 μW h cm−3 without NaNO3 to 2245 μW h cm−3 with NaNO3. Meanwhile, the gravimetric capacitance also increased from 151 F g−1 without to 192 F g−1 with NaNO3.
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4. |
- Schlee, Philipp, et al.
(author)
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Hardwood : versus softwood Kraft lignin-precursor-product relationships in the manufacture of porous carbon nanofibers for supercapacitors
- 2020
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In: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 2050-7488 .- 2050-7496. ; 8:44, s. 23543-23554
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The process of stabilization is essential in the production of carbon fibers from lignins. During stabilization, the initially thermoplastic lignin polymer is converted to a thermoset polymer allowing for high-temperature treatment without a change in shape. In this work, hardwood (HKL) and softwood (SKL) Kraft lignins were stabilized in air at temperatures between 190 and 340 °C before carbonization at 800 °C in a nitrogen atmosphere. Due to the differences in side-chain linkages, functional groups and molar mass, the lignins exhibit different structural changes upon stabilization and hence develop different porosities upon carbonization. Both lignins undergo major crosslinking reactions in the side chains at low temperatures and degradation reactions at high temperatures during stabilization. Crosslinking gives rise to narrow pore size distributions with mainly (sub-) nanometer pores, whereas degradation reactions lead to a more open pore structure with additional mesoporosity (>2 nm). When both types of reactions take place simultaneously, highly accessible (sub-) nanoporosity can be effectively created, which boosts the performance of supercapacitors operating in 6 M KOH(aq). This effect terminates when the crosslinking reactions cease and mainly degradation reactions take place, which occurs in HKL at 340 °C. SKL shows both a lower degree of crosslinking and degradation and hence develops less specific surface area. The optimum performance in an aqueous alkaline supercapacitor is achieved with HKL stabilized at 310 °C. It shows a specific gravimetric capacitance of 164 F g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 and 119 F g-1 at 250 A g-1 with a capacitance retention of more than 90% after 10 000 cycles.
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