Development of nanostructured materials for energy conversion And storage

Abstract

In recent years, research works on nanomaterials plays a significant role in enhancing the performance of energy storage devices. In any storage devise, secondary battery, supercapacitor, air battery, and CO2 reduction have emerged as one of the most interesting and promising applications. In this study, asymmetric supercapacitor, symmetric supercapacitor, aluminium air battery and electrochemical CO2 reduction are investigated in order to enhance the electrochemical performance of the energy storage devices. Asymmetric coin cell supercapacitor is constructed using the Ni-MoS2 as an anode material and water dispersible graphene/MnO2 as a cathode material. The Ni-MoS2 is synthesised by electrochemical method. The water dispersible graphene is synthesised by adjusting pH value and composite with MnO2 by simple reflux method. The structural morphology, particle size and crystalline nature of the prepared nano material are comprehensively characterised. The prepared asymmetrical electrodes are used to construct the 2023 coin cell upercapacitor with polypropylene as a separator and Na2SO4 as a gel electrolyte. The electrochemical performances of the asymmetrical supercapacitor as well as the half-cell studies of Ni-MoS2 nanocomposite are carried out at room temperature. The present study confirms that the energy and power density of the supercapacitor is higher than that of already reported commercial supercapacitors. The high water dispersible graphene-MnO2 is used as both anode and cathode materials to construct symmetric coin cell supercapacitor. The highly stable and more water dispersible graphene (WDG) is synthesized using microwave-assisted ball milling technique. The WDG-wrapped MnO2 nanocomposites are prepared for two mass ratios (10 and 30 mg) of nanospheres and graphene sheets using reflex method. newline