Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2025 Conference (MATSUSSpring25)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsusspring.2025.256
Publication date: 16th December 2024
Due to abundant raw materials, low costs and promising high reversible specific capacities, hard carbons (HCs) are a common choice for commercially manufactured anodes in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). Despite their potential and extensive use, the storage mechanism is still under debate. The non-stoichiometric adsorption mechanism also means that the search for an upper limit for the reversible capacity is ongoing. There is a strong requirement for synthetic anodes that enable a better understanding of the theoretical capacity associated with HC-anodes. We have developed core-shell carbon anodes consisting of a highly porous carbon core and (almost) non-porous shell. Thus, the reversible capacity can be deconvoluted from irreversible capacity losses, arising from the formation of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). Moreover, the porosity of the carbon-core can be linked to the reversible capacities gained.
A range of microporous activated carbons were coated via an optimized chemical vapour deposition technique.[1][2] These materials were characterised using a range of techniques including powder x-ray diffraction, small angle x-ray diffraction (SAXS), gas physisorption (N2, CO2) measurements and electrochemical characterisation at coin cell level.
After coating, the material showed a significant reduction in detectable surface area (up to a factor of 192x) by N2-physisorption. The tailor-made shell allows the stable cycling of a carbon anode vs metallic Na-electrode in coin cells at room temperature. For the best performing material, the reversible capacity increased from 139 ± 2 mAhg-1 to 396 ± 2 mAhg-1 while irreversible capacity is decreased from 636 ± 3 mAhg-1 to 89 ± 3 mAhg-1 (see Figure 1). After initial stabilization, a CE of 99% was achieved. The coating technique was usefully applied to a range of materials.
The successful formation of core-shell structures with high capacities enables separation of the storage mechanism from SEI-formation. In turn a proposed calculation to rank the contributions of surface adsorption and pore filling capacity can be confirmed. The materials also create the opportunity to conduct a range of operando experiments (e.g., SAXS) that can shed further light on the sodium storage mechanism.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.