Snežana M. Brkovic

Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences | VIN · Department of Physical Chemistry

With growing concerns regarding environmental pollution and the need for sustainable waste management practices, this study investigates the potential of utilizing spent coffee grounds (SCG) as a precursor for producing functional carbon materials aimed at organophosphorus pesticide remediation under environmentally relevant conditions. Carbonizati...

Environmental contamination from various industrial sources poses a significant global concern, demanding effective remediation strategies. This study investigates the efficacy of spent coffee grounds-derived carbon material in removing various contaminants, including organophosphate pesticides, pharmaceutical residues, and cationic dyes from aqueo...

Pesticides are extensively used in agriculture to enhance crop yield and combat pests and pose a significant threat to ecosystems and human health when their residues accumulate in soil and water. Conventional methods of pesticide removal are often costly or introduce secondary pollutants. The increasing worry about pesticides harming the environme...

Organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) are widely used in agriculture to control pests, but their residues pose significant environmental and health risks. In this study, the potential of spent coffee grounds (SCG) as a sustainable adsorbent for the remediation of organophosphorous pesticides, specifically malathion (MLT) and chlorpyrifos (CHP), was inv...

Against the background of escalating global electronic waste (e-waste) and its rich reservoir of elements, this research addresses the exploitation of precious metals from discarded CPUs for potential applications in hydrogen production. The study systematically explores the influence of varied CPU sample preparation techniques on the formation of...

The development of carbon materials with desirable textures and new aqueous electrolytes is the key strategy to improve the performance of supercapacitors. Herein, a deep eutectic solvent (DES) was used for in situ templating of a carbon material. A carbon material was characterized (XRD, N2- physisorption, FTIR, SEM and EDS) and used as an electro...

The capacitance and operating voltage of supercapacitors as well as their energy density have been increased by development of different materials and electrolytes. In this paper, two strategies, for the first time, were used to improve energy density: Mn3O4- and N-dual doped carbon electrode and aqueous mixture of multivalent ions as electrolyte....

The extensive application of a pesticide, such as malathion, is a potential risk to human health as it can easily enter the food chain. An efficient and economical method for pesticide removal from the environment is necessary. In this work, we prepared a carbon material derived from biowaste (rabbit litter) for the removal of malathion from water....

Special attention in this work is devoted to the influence of laser radiation on the possibility of improving the activity of electrodes for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Using TEA CO2 lasers, Co and Mo based electrode coatings were modified and their morphology, composition and electrocatalytic activity were examined. It was found that the lase...

In this paper we synthesised new hybrid porous carbon/MWCNT material using ionic liquid. Characterization of surface chemistry showed that hybrid porous carbon/MWCNT material, beside oxygen functionalities, has nitrogen as well as sulphur surface functional groups. This hybrid material was further tested as electrode material for multivalent ions e...

Development of cost-effective, bi-functional carbon electrocatalysts via direct carbonization of ionic liquids (bis(cholinium) tetrachlorocobaltate(II) ([Ch]2[CoCl4]) and bis(1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium) tetrachlorocobaltate(II) ([Bmim]2[CoCl4])) is reported herein for the first time. Carbon electrocatalysts, dual-doped with cobalt and nitrogen, we...

Durability and cost of Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are two major factors delaying their commercialization. Cost is associated with the price of the catalysts, while durability is associated with degradation and poisoning of the catalysts, primarily by CO. This motivated us to develop tungsten-carbide-oxide (WxCyOz) as a new non-car...

Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction (HOR) is anode reaction in Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and it has very fast kinetics. However, the purity of fuel (H2) is very important and can slow down HOR kinetics, affecting the overall PEMFC performance. The performance of commercial Pt/C catalyst impregnated with WOx, as a catalyst for HOR, was in...

In this work, nickel (Ni) cathode for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline medium, was modified by a combination of in situ ionic activators, based on three d-metals (Co, Cu and Mo). Catalytic performance of new Co-Cu-Mo cathode was improved compared to pure Ni in view of both increased HER reaction rate and improved energy efficiency - re...

p>A systematic ab initio (DFT-GGA) study of adsorption of various oxygen species on graphene has been performed in order to find out general trends and provide a good starting point to analyze the oxidation of more complex carbon materials. Particular attention was paid to finding an appropriate supercell model. According to our findings, atomic O...

Cost and durability are two major factors that delay large-scale production and commercialization of PEMFC’s. One of the technologically ready application of the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) is in the combined heat and power systems (µCHP), which are used in the individual households or buildings. The performance of the µCHP systems...

Cost and durability are two major factors that delay large-scale production and commercialization of PEMFC’s. One of the technologically ready application of the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) is in the combined heat and power systems (µCHP), which are used in the individual households or buildings. The performance of the µCHP systems...

AbstractCost and durability are two major factors that delay large-scale production and commercialization of PEMFC’s. One of the technologically ready application of the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) is in the combined heat and power systems (µCHP), which are used in the individual households or buildings. The performance of the µCHP...

AbstractCost and durability are two major factors that delay large-scale production and commercialization of PEMFC’s. One of the technologically ready application of the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) is in the combined heat and power systems (µCHP), which are used in the individual households or buildings. The performance of the µCHP...

The electrochemical behavior of cobalt ethylenediamine complexes (Co(en)), at pH 12 was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), the potentiostatic pulse technique and polarization curve measurements at stationary and rotating glassy carbon (GC) electrodes. It was shown that sixteen different species could be formed in a solution containing Co(en)3...

Catalyst based on cobalt and chrome was investigated as cathode material for hydrogen production process via water electrolysis. Electrocatalytic efficiency of proposed system was studied using quasi-potentiostatic, galvanostatic and impedance spectroscopy techniques of the catalyst obtained by in situ electrodeposition in an alkaline, 6 M KOH, ele...

Nickel electrodes are widely used in industrial water electrolysis cells for electrochemical production of hydrogen. To avoid extensive deactivation problems and enhance the efficiency of the electrolyser cathode, in this work in situ activation is proposed using ionic activator (i.a.) based on combination of three d-metals: Zn, Co and Mo. Polariza...

The manuscript presents a report on the improved efficiency of alkaline electrolytic production of hydrogen by in situ adding directly into the electrolyte during the electrolytic process, cobalt and chrome based ionic activators. During electrolysis process the ionic activators deposit on the surface of the Ni cathode electrode and form an active,...

Alkaline water electrolysis is one of the easiest methods for hydrogen production. Simplicity and usefulness are the two main features that characterize this method. The challenges for widespread use of water electrolysis are to reduce energy consumption, cost, durability and safety. In our investigation we obtain the results about energy efficienc...

The aim of this work is to investigate the energy consumption of alkaline electrolyser with the in situ added ionic activators. Several concentrations of nickel and tungsten based ionic activators were used in the same alkaline electrolyser, and the energy consumption was calculated and compared to conventional electrolyte. The electrolyser operate...

Hydrogen is considered to be the most promising candidate as a future energy carrier. One of the most used technologies for the electrolytic hydrogen production is alkaline water electrolysis. However, due to high energy requirements of about 4.5–5 kWh/Nm3 H2 in most industrial electrolysers, the cost of hydrogen produced in such a way is high. The...

This paper presents an attempt to make the alkaline electrolytic production of hydrogen more efficient by adding in situ activating compounds in ionic and complex form. Cobalt and tungsten based ionic activators (i.a.), added directly into the electrolyte during the electrolytic process, reduce energy requirements per mass unit of hydrogen produced...