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Cost-effective Energy Devices for Renewable Energy Prodeuction and Storage

Energy storage devices such as lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and electrochemical double layer (EDL) capacitors (sometimes referred to as ‘supercapacitors’ or ‘ultracapacitors’) are critical not only to stationary power generation (e.g., solar and wind energy harvesting) but also to mobile power sources (e.g., automotive applications).  For instance, LIB technologies will be critical to driving the future energy applications, portable electronics, and electric/hybrid vehicles because of their high energy density with high cell voltage, low maintenance and because they are more environmentally friendly than nickel-cadmium batteries.  Supercapacitors on the other hand could offer high power densities and rapid charging/discharging for instantaneous high load applications.  Our research objective is to develop novel electrode materials based on hybrid nanostructures for high-performance LIBs and supercapacitors.  We have demonstrated high capacity LIBs using graphene-Sn hybrids, vertically-oriented graphene, and crumpled graphene-SnO2 nanoparticle structures.  We have also demonstrated supercapacitors with a high specific capacity using vertical graphene, high-porosity graphene, and crumpled graphene-Mn3O4 nanoparticle hybrids.  This research is expected to result in novel methods to fabricate hybrid nanostructures at a low cost and a large scale for both LIB and supercapacitor applications and to shed lights on performance enhancement mechanisms.

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Representative journal publications

  1. P. Wu, L. Huang, X. K. Huang, X. R. Guo, D. Liu, D. Zheng, X. L. Zhang, R. Ren, D. Y. Qu, and J. H. Chen*, “Room-temperature liquid metal-based self-healing anode for lithium-ion batteries with an ultra-long cycle life,” Accepted to Energy and Environmental Science, 2017.

  2. Hou, Z. H. Wen, S. M. Cui, X. L. Feng*, and J. H. Chen*, “Strongly Coupled Ternary Hybrid Aerogels of N-deficient Porous Graphitic-C3N4 Nanosheets/N-Doped Graphene/NiFe-Layered Double Hydroxide for Solar-Driven Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation,” Nano Letters 16(4), 2268–2277, 2016.

  3. K. Huang, J. Yang, S. Mao, J. B. Chang, P. B. Hallac, C. Fell, B. Metz, J. W. Jiang, P. T. Hurley, and J. H. Chen*, “Controllable Green Synthesis of Hollow Si Anode for Long-cycle-life Lithium-ion Batteries,” Advanced Materials 26(25), 4326-4332, 2014.

  4. B. Chang, X. K. Huang, G. H. Zhou, S. M. Cui, P. B. Hallac, J. W. Jiang, P. T. Hurley, and J. H. Chen*, “Multilayered Si Nanoparticle/Reduced Graphene Oxide Hybrid as a Lithium-Ion Battery Anode,” Advanced Materials 26(5), 758-764, 2014. (Front Cover)

  5. H. Wen, X. C. Wang, S. Mao, Z. Bo, H. Kim, S. M. Cui, G. H. Lu, X. L. Feng*, and J. H. Chen*, “Crumpled Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Nanosheets with Ultrahigh Pore Volume for High-performance Supercapacitor,” Advanced Materials 24(41), 5610-5616, 2012.

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