This project aims to develop advanced nanotechnology to make thin film supercapacitors based on graphene, a robust, atomically-thin layer of carbon. Supercapacitors are an alternative to batteries, and in some applications perform better than batteries owing to their fast charge/discharge rate, long cycle lifetime, and high power output.
Today commercial supercapacitors based on activated carbon can store up to 1/20 of the energy of Li-ion batteries with similar weight and size. To make them competitive and exploit their superior power output in real world applications like electric cars, mobile phones or computers it is crucial to increase their energy storage capacity.
Our goal is to develop a scalable technology to fabricate graphene supercapacitors with a high energy storage capacity, rivalling Li-ion batteries.
PhD Student: Michael Horn
Post Doc: Bharati Gupta
Supervisors: Nunzio Motta, Jennifer MacLeod, Jose Alarco, Jinzhang Liu
PhD projects available in this area.
Funding:
Queensland Government,
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Recent Papers:
Wang, B., J. Liu, Y. Zhao, Y. Li, W. Xian, M. Amjadipour, J. MacLeod, and N. Motta, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2016. 8(34): p. 22316-22323.
Liu, J., F. Mirri, M. Notarianni, M. Pasquali, and N. Motta, Journal of Power Sources, 2015. 274(0): p. 823-830.