Gelines Moreno-Fernández’s scientific contributions

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) have emerged as promising alternatives to replace Li-ion technology in lightweight applications, but they still face some important challenges that hinder their commercialization. To overcome them, several optimization strategies focusing on each battery component have been investigated. In this work, we have explored the symbiotic combination of an optimized high-sulfur loading graphene-containing cathode with a novel sparingly solvating electrolyte (SSE) consisting of 1,3-dioxolane (DOL) as solvent and 1H,1H,5H-octafluoropentyl-1,1,2,2-tetrafluoroethyl ether (OCTO) as diluent, at an E/S ratio of 7 μL mg−1. The impact of graphene incorporation into the cathode formulation and the physicochemical compatibility between cathode and electrolyte have been evaluated and compared to those obtained for the benchmarking DME/DOL electrolyte. Using the DOL/OCTO SSE enhanced wettability over our graphene-containing electrodes and hampered significant polysulfide dissolution. Most importantly, the electrochemistry of this system showed very promising values at coin cell level, achieving areal discharge capacities of 5.3 mAh cm−2 at C/10, enduring beyond 100 cycles with 65 % capacity retention. The transferability of the system to prototype cells was successfully demonstrated by assembling a monolayer pouch cell which reached initial capacities of 55 mAh and lasted more than 60 cycles, paving the way for real deployment and commercialization of this energy storage technology.

Herein, we report an easy approach for the preparation of graphene‐based materials suitable as electrodes for lithium‐ion capacitors (LICs). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that phosphorus‐functionalized graphene oxide (rGO800‐P) is used as negative (battery‐type) electrode in LICs technology. An activated carbon derived from the pyrolysis of graphene‐carbon composite served as positive (capacitor‐type) electrode. While phosphorus functionalization on the negative electrode enables fast Li⁺ kinetics during insertion/extraction processes, the flat‐shaped morphology, large surface area and proper pore size distribution of the positive electrode enhance the double‐layer formation. Full LICs optimization, oversizing the negative electrode allows operating in the extended voltage window of 1.5–4.5 V delivering high energy and power values (91 Wh kg⁻¹AM at 145 W kg⁻¹AM and 33 Wh kg⁻¹AM at 26,000 W kg⁻¹AM) without compromising the cycling performance (76 % capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles).