María Canal-Rodríguez

• PostDoc Position at CIC Energigune

Li-ion capacitors (LICs) are considered a promising option for high-power application with a relatively high energy content compared to traditional supercapacitors ¹ . There are however some issues with LICs: The anode needs to be pre-lithiated, which adds extra processing steps and increases the cost of assembly and/or material, and the stability...

Supercapacitors are the choice when high-power performance is essential, however, for many applications the energy density of supercapacitors is too low to be used. To increase the energy density, it is possible to combine an insertion type anode of a Li-ion battery with a capacitor type double-layer electrode, forming a so-called Li-ion capacitor...

Lithium devices are the ones that reached the market to prompt the sustainable use of renewable sources, the alternative promise to leave behind fossil fuels dependency. However, lithium reservoirs seem not to be enough to supply the expected increase in future market demands. On account of that, the appearance of sodium-energy devices as an altern...

Lithium-ion capacitors (LICs) show promise to help lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and electrical double layer capacitors (EDLCs) in giving response to those applications that require an energy storage solution. However, pre-lithiation is a major challenge that needs to be tackled in order to develop efficient and long-lasting LIBs and LICs. In this w...

In this work, the benefits and drawbacks of replacing graphite by hard carbon as negative electrode in a lithium-ion capacitor are studied. Beyond the material selection and electrode optimization, the impact of the cell design in the final performance is also evaluated. When selecting hard carbon, final prototype avoids using any critical raw mate...

Due to the dual advantage of capacitive and faradaic charge storage mechanisms, Li-ion capacitors (LICs) are regarded as promising energy storage technology for many high-power applications. However, the high cost and intricacy of indispensable pre-lithiation step in LIC fabrication are the major stumbling block against its widespread commercial in...

Carbon xerogels with different macropore sizes and degrees of graphitization were evaluated as electrodes in lithium-ion batteries. It was found that pore structure of the xerogels has a marked effect on the degree of graphitization of the final carbons. Moreover, the incorporation of graphene oxide to the polymeric structure of the carbon xerogels...

The development of new electrocatalysts based on carbon materials lies in the appropriate design of their physico-chemical properties. The porous structure of the carbon xerogels is expected to have a direct effect on the subsequent processes used to further design the properties. Hence, it is essential to understand how the porous structure can af...

Six carbon materials were obtained from the carbonisation of resorcinol/formaldehyde xerogels. All carbon xerogels (CXs) showed essentially the same microporosity but differed in their meso- or macroporosity, covering a wide interval of average meso- or macropore sizes from 10 nm to 3000 nm. The graphitisation of the CXs was heterogeneous, as detec...

Electrodes for supercapacitors are commercially produced by mixing active material with a conductive additive and a binder. However, with some polymers such as carbon xerogels the conductive additives can be added during their synthesis in order to enhance interactions between the components of the electrode. In this work the performance in aqueous...

Three different hybrid carbon xerogels containing Graphene Oxide (AXGO), Micronized Graphite (AXMG) and Carbon Black (AXCB) were synthesized using an easy, fast and affordable method. These three additives were initially selected to improve the electrical conductivity of the pristine activated carbon xerogel (AX) thus expecting to improve its perfo...

An easy method to prepare carbon xerogels with tailored porous properties and high degree of graphitization is reported. A pristine carbon xerogel was obtained by microwave-assisted synthesis, which was then transformed into a graphitic carbon also via microwave heating. Graphitized carbon materials were obtained by using different microwave power...

A pristine carbon xerogel (AX) and two hybrid samples (AX-3% and AX-9%), with different graphene percentages (3 and 9 wt%), were synthesized using a fast and economical process. It was observed that graphene produces less shrinkage of the xerogel structure during synthesis. Moreover, the electrical conductivity of the materials increases linearly w...

HRTEM images of carbon xerogels doped with graphene, where it is observed that the graphitic structure of carbon xerogels is composed of basal planes that do not exceed 10 nm, in which graphene sheets are embedded, with lengths greater than 10 nm , which, when they reach their point of perolation, interconnect with each other; which gives rise to m...

A series of resorcinol formaldehyde based carbon xerogels were synthesized under identical conditions using different graphene oxide loads. The gelification reaction was carried out using a stable aqueous suspension of graphene oxide, yielding organic gels with graphene oxide concentrations ranging from 1.2–2.5%. After the carbonization, xerogels w...

A graphene doped carbon xerogel was synthesized by simply replacing the water (solvent) by an aqueous well-dispersed graphene oxide stable suspension in the precursor mixture used for the synthesis of the organic xerogel. During the carbonization of the organic xerogel, the graphene oxide sheets are reduced to graphene, which is embedded and well d...