Lithium Metal – Air battery energy storage device developed using mesoporous carbon derived from the spent disposable papercups by a team of researchers at Department of Green Energy Technology, Pondicherry University, has been chosen to be featured on the cover of Royal Society of Chemistry’s New Journal of Chemistry (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D2NJ05679H).    

Researchers at the Department of Green Energy Technology, Madanjeet School of Green Energy Technologies, Pondicherry University, have developed selenium-doped mesoporous carbon electrode by means of simple chemical activation of spent paper teacups for energy storage device. The team led by Prof. P. Elumalai with Research Scholar, Ms. V. Sankar Devi developed a simple carbonization followed by chemical activation method to generate air-breathing electrode material for high energy lithium-air (Li-O₂) battery. The fine research work will feature on the cover page of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal, New Journal of Chemistry. 

The cover depicts 

·         Photograph of Lithium-Air coin cell battery

·         Exploded view of coin cell battery showing Li anode, Selenium-doped carbon as air cathode

·         Natural field from where battery takes air for breathing during charging - discharging

·         Collection of spent papercups using which selenium-doped carbon was derived

·         All these are in the background of Aurovile globe - The City of Dawn - where a lot of sustainability is practiced.

 

Rapid developments in modern consumer electronics, the emergence of electric vehicle (EV) technology and the growing interest in using renewable energy, have led to huge demands for efficient electrochemical energy storage devices. To upgrade the specific energy of the current lithium-ion battery, it is necessary to use low-mass or no-mass cathode. Thus, much attention has recently been currently devoted to the development of post-lithium-ion batteries such as lithium–sulphur (Li–S) and lithium–oxygen (Li–O₂) batteries. Among them, the Li–O₂ battery also known as Li-Air battery, holds an impressive theoretical specific energy of 3500 W h kg^-1 (including air mass), which is at least ten times higher specific energy than that of the conventional lithium-ion battery. Also, it is cost-effective and lightweight since it uses the O₂ cathode from the atmospheric air during discharge, which replaces the expensive high-mass bearing metal oxide-based cathodes in LIB. In this work, the spent disposable papercups (teacups) were used as a carbon source and then metal-free activated porous carbon was generated through carbonization followed by chemical activation. It turned out that the proto-type CR2032 Li-Air battery fabricated using the Se-doped mesoporous carbon as air-breathing electrode exhibited a stable open circuit voltage of 3.1 V and a high discharge capacity of about 1600 mA h g^-1. Such a fine research work has been chosen as a cover page of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal, New Journal of Chemistry. 

Prof. Elumalai and his team have recently filed six Indian Patents on energy storage devices and acquired major grant from DST Govt. of India for development of Lithium-Air battery and Sodium-Air battery. A state-of-art research facility has been created in his lab for battery and supercapacitor fabrication and their testing. 

Vice-Chancellor Gurmeet Singh congratulated the efforts of Prof. Elumalai and his team. Head of the Department, Prof. Arun Prasath also complimented the researchers.

 

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