Materials for Ion-Batteries
and Super-Capacitors
Bo Brummerstedt Iversen
E-mail: bo@chem.au.dk
Office: 1512-312
Background:
Rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries are the power sources in an enormous range of modern appliances
including laptops, cell phones and electric cars. At AU Chemistry/iNANO we are exploring ways to
improve Li-ion and Na-ion batteries. This endeavour largely hinges upon the inorganic solid-state
materials inside the batteries – the cathode and anode material, to be specific. Our research includes
material synthesis as nanoparticles, actual assembling of coin-cell batteries and testing their power
density and charge/discharge characteristics. Other studies focus on the structural changes taking place
(at the atomic scale) in battery materials while
it is being charged or discharged. One of the
aims is to find new types of batteries which are
suitable not for small, mobile devices but rather
for large-scale power storage in the general
electricity-grid. The studies also delve into the
realm of super-capacitance where the ionstorage mechanism is supplemented by
capacitance born by the shear surface area of
the battery nanomaterials.
Techniques:
Synthesis by hydrothermal or soft-precipitation methods
Coin-cell battery assembly (glove-box)
Powder X-ray diffraction incl. in-operando studies,
Cyclic voltametry, galvanostatic charge/discharge, etc.
Project suggestions:
Synthesis and characterization of electrode materials for Na-ion batteries
Nanoparticle synthesis for sulphur-based Li-ion batteries
Super-capacitor materials based on inorganic nanoceramics
Examples of previous Bachelor projects:
Troels L. Christiansen, Strukturelle studier af hydrotermalt syntetiseret LiMn 2O4, Bachelor
thesis, Aarhus University, 2012 (Danish)
Kirsten Marie Ø. Jensen, Syntese og karakterisering af LiCoO2 og NaCoO2, Bachelor thesis,
Aarhus University, 2008 (Danish)
Relevant litterature:
The Li-ion rechargeable battery: A perspective, J. B. Goodenough, K.S Park, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 134, 2013, 1167-1176
High-resolution in-situ structural measurements of the Li4/3Ti5/3O4 zero-strain insertion material, F. Ronci, P. Reale,
B. Scrosati, S. Panero, V. R. Albertini, P. Perfetti, M. di Michel, J. M. Merion, J. Phys. Chem., 106, 2012, 3082-3086
Structure and electrochemistry of the spinel oxides LiTi 2O4 and Li43Ti53O4, K. M. Colbow, J. R. Dahn, R. R. Haering, J.
Power Sources, 26, 1989, 397-402
50 nm