Research Projects

Carbon materials have been predominantly used as anodes for Li ion battery in consumer electronics however poor rate capability limits their use in automotive. Based on our recent breakthrough on using candle soot derived fractal-like carbon nanoparticles as anode for high rate applications, we now aim to develop a prototype for automotive battery as well as supercapacitors by integrating candle soot with graphene which has also been demonstrated for high capacity and stability. Our approach would be to fabricate hierarchical nanostructured carbon electrodes by depositing conducting carbon soot nanoparticles and/or graphene on sub-micron electrospun polymer and/or carbon fibers. Candle soot based hierarchical structures aim to minimize the transportation distance of lithium ions and therefore fast charge/discharge and at the same time, use of graphene enhances the electronic conductivity. In summary, this is an effort to combine high rate capabilities of candle soot and/or graphene with high performance electrospun carbon nanofibers.