Tulane scientist leads study into faster charge energy storage



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Tulane scientist Michael Naguib

Michael Naguib, early career science and engineering professor Ken & Ruth Arnold, is an expert in two-dimensional materials and electrochemical energy storage. Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano.

An award-winning Tulane University researcher has led a team of discoveries that could charge electric vehicles and portable devices such as cellphones and laptops considerably faster. The team, led by Michel naguib, Professor Ken & Ruth Arnold early in his career in science and engineering, designed new materials at the nanoscale to achieve high power and energy densities.

The new material has the potential to reduce charge times from hours to minutes.

The team’s work, titled “Interleave spacing engineering by pre-intercalation for high performance supercapacitor MXene electrodes in ionic liquid at room temperature” was published in the journal Advanced functional materials and chosen for publication fourth cover.

“The performance we get – in terms of energy and power density – is exceptional and bridges the gap between batteries and capacitors.”

Michael Naguib, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics at Tulane

Naguib is an expert in two-dimensional storage of materials and electrochemical energy. He said the legitimate shift to renewables has led to an urgent need for electrochemical energy storage devices that can handle high charge rates and have high capacity.

While lithium-ion batteries, also known as Li-ion or LIBS batteries, offer one of the highest energy densities, he said, “they still struggle to achieve high charge rates. , and their electrolytes present safety concerns. “

On the other hand, he said, aqueous electrochemical capacitors, also called supercapacitors, can deliver very high power but their energy density is limited.

Funded by the Energy Frontier Research Center (DOE-EFRC) of the Ministry of Energy as part of the Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport (FIRST) center, Naguib’s work revolves around MXenes, promising materials for energy storage that are conductive and can harbor ions, such as lithium, between layers. Ionic liquids at room temperature are promising electrolytes because they offer greater stability and energy density. But because their ions are so large and unable to pass between the layers of MXene, the amount of energy stored is limited.

“Here we have introduced shims or pillars between the layers to open them up, allowing ionic liquid ions to store between the layers of MXene, thus achieving very high energy and power densities,” Naguib said.

He said this work illustrates the importance of optimizing and designing spacing in 2D materials to unlock their potential for new applications.

In addition to the Tulane authors, the study team consisted of researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University, North Carolina State University, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Naguib has received numerous national awards for his work on energetic materials, including one of the 10 DOE-EFRC Ten at Ten Awards and the 2018 KROTO Award for his outstanding achievements and contributions in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. In 2018, he was listed as a highly cited researcher by Clarivate Analytics, a global leader in analytics related to advances in innovation. He recently received the NSF CAREER award for studying 2D material synthesis.

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