Supercapacitors are an interesting solution since they have a greater charge-discharge power than batteries, in addition to chemical stability and durability against cycling. They have, however, much lower energy storage capacity, and a lot of research is being done to increase the energy density of supercapacitors.
The ESTORE project aims to innovate in this field through the development of advanced nanocarbon hybrid electrodes by the combination of techniques based on plasma, laser processing and microfluidics. These techniques, which are easily scalable to the industrial sector, will allow to manufacture electrodes with a large specific area composed of coated with pseudocapacitive nanostructures that, through surface electrochemical processes, give rise to a large increase in specific energy without compromising power and electrochemical stability.
ESTORE is a Spanish National R+D project realized by a consortium of three research groups with expertise in the growth of nanocarbon electrodes using plasma techniques (Energy, Photonic, and Catalysis Materials research group ENPHOCAMAT, University of Barcelona – UB), processing and laser deposition of nanomaterials (Laser Processing Research (LPR) Group, ICMAB-CSIC) and advanced synthesis of functional nanomaterials using microfluidic techniques (Chemistry in Flow group CIF, University of Barcelona - UB). From ICMAB, the researchers involved are Ángel Pérez and Enikö György, from the Laser Processing Group.
Three subprojects and four research lines aimed to the development of two hybrid electrodes:
- Nanocarbon electrodes decorated with nanocrystals of complex transition metal oxides (MeO)
- Nanocarbon electrodes coated with porous metal organic nanostructures (Metal-Organic Frameworks, MOFs).
In general lines, plasma methods will be used to grow porous carbon nanostructures on which MeO nanocrystals will be grown using laser techniques or MOFs will be synthesized under conditions that simulate microgravity using microfluidic devices. The final objective is to develop hybrid electrodes and asymmetric SCs with high performance in a versatile and cost effective way, allowing these pioneering technologies to move closer to the industrial sector.
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