Research Projects

The technical advancement of our society, the escalation of world economy and continuous depletion of natural energy source have been the major causes for the huge demand for the advanced cost-effective energy-storage device in the near future. The present work is aimed to develop a novel nanostructured hybrid mat consisting of waste sugarcane bagasse (WSB)-derived carbon nanofibers and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as a flexible binder-free supercapacitor (SC) electrode with the emphasis on high energy density, long cycle life, better structural stability, good scalability, and low material and processing cost. For this purpose, we have planned to explore WSB from the Indian sugar industries as promising precursor to fabricate 3D electrospun porous CNF mat. The texture properties like porosity, pore-size distribution, specific surface area of the WSB-derived CNF mat will be optimized by adopting different carbonization approaches with varying processing parameters and different activation processes. The structural and electrochemical modifications of as-fabricated WSB-derived CNF mat will be done by core-shell hybridization with MOFs. We anticipate that the proposed WSB-derived CNF/MOF hybrid mats with high electrical conductivity, high surface-to-volume ratio, hierarchically porous structure, large electrolyte-accessible surface area, numerous accessible redox sites, synergistic effects, and better hetero-interface stability would meet the current commercial demand of SC electrode materials with high energy density. Moreover, the WSB-derived doped CNF with large number of dopant sites (as polarization sites) would also be optimized as an effective core to control the nucleation and growth of MOF crystals and their lattice structures and crystal interfaces. The composition and pore structure of MOFs will be modulated by tunning precursors, synthetic parameters, and post-synthetic modification in order to achieve our target energy density of ≥ 150 Whkg-1 along with a power density of ≥ 30 kWkg-1 and potential window of ≥ 3.5 V for the SC devices. PIs will develop suitable ionic liquid gel electrolytes for fabrication of flexible leakage-proof solid-state SCs for smart roll-up electronic devices and miniaturized wearable electronics using as-prepared CNF mat and its hybrid as promising binder-free electrodes. A cost analysis of fabrication of SC devices will be done for better understanding the sustainability of fabrication of waste sugarcane bagasse-derived target electrode material.