Research Projects

The growing demand for battery-powered miniature devices has led to the development of novel energy storage technologies, such as micro-supercapacitors and micro-batteries. Micro-supercapattery is a technology that offers both high energy and power density at the micro level, providing a long cycling life and withstands a wide temperature range. Metal ion hybrid supercapacitors like Li-ion, K-ion, and Zn-ion have been proposed for high energy/high power density with great safety. Dual-ion micro-supercapattery employs cutting-edge technology that uses both cations and anions to engage in redox intercalation/deintercalation reactions in the anode and cathode. In this proposal, silicene is introduced as the anode material, composed of single-layer silicon atoms through a conductive framework. It has two distinct structural forms: planar sp2 hybridized structure and buckled silicene, which can provide greater theoretical capacity than graphite. Silicene is suitable for storing lithium ion and provides sufficient binding energy, such as 2.2 eV for the lithium atom. The conducting metal organic framework (c-MOF) is used in zinc ion batteries, which are nickel-free, affordable, and high-energy-density batteries with high cycle rates. This project includes the dual ion active electrolyte, such as the 4-Biphenylzinc bromide solution, which interdigitates at the micro-level using lignin-based laser-induced graphene (LIG) as a 3-D honeycomb porous material. This interdigitation enables high capacitance, high energy, and high-power density micro-supercapattery.