Description of the host laboratory CEA is a French research organization. Its mission is to develop research in civil and defence industrial applications such as nuclear energy and alternative energies, biotechnology, microelectronics, as well as maintaining fundamental research in diverse fields such as astrophysics, biology, climatology and condensed matter physics. CEA-IRIG - the Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble - conducts research in biology, health, nanosciences, cryotechnologies and new technologies for energy and the environment. SyMMES (Systèmes Moléculaires et Matériaux pour l’Energie et la Santé) - one of the IRIG laboratory - explores the design, synthesis and study of innovative and original functional architectures and materials, to respond to societal challenges linked to health and energy storage and conversion.
IRIG/SyMMES - in collaboration with CIRIMAT Toulouse - has been working on the development of expanded graphene macro- and nano-scale assemblies to be used as electrode materials for supercapacitors for the past few years. Researches focus on the design and optimization of graphene oxide-derived materials through different synthesis and functionalization routes. IRIG/SyMMES and IRIG/MEM have been working jointly to characterize such systems with state of the art ssNMR, EPR and diffusion techniques (WAXS, SAXS, SANS).
Project context – main PEPR project
The main project objective aims at preparing batteries that meet the needs of various applications which cannot be addressed by the current battery technologies. This postdoctoral project will be part of a research avenue based on the development of hybrid batteries relying on the improvement and adaptation of carbon-based electrodes currently used for supercapacitors. This national research project - funded by France 2030 initiative managed by ANR - gathers different French academic partners (~15) with skills lying between materials development, characterization, formulation and electrochemical cycling.
Post-doctoral project summary Expanded graphene structures such as those developed in IRIG/SyMMES display mixed graphitic domains. These carbon materials derived from pillared graphene materials and doped-graphene (RGO or graphene hydrogel) are known to combine different structural features, as these systems exist as mixtures of pillared and restacked reduced graphene oxide domains, and/or display different microporosities and graphitization degree.
It is argued that both adsorption and intercalation could occur in these mixed domains graphene electrodes giving access to high power storage devices with enhanced energy densities as compared to standard EDLC behaviors. Hence this postdoctoral research project aims at designing and optimizing these materials by varying pillaring conditions, functionalization/doping and graphitization degree to fine tune adsorption/intercalation sites, assemblies stability, conductivity and porosity. Standard and advanced physico-chemical/morphological properties of these expanded graphene will be correlated to their electrochemical performances. Electrochemical characterization will involve standard EDLC and hybrid device testing. Electrolytes benchmarking will be performed in order to find the best materials-electrolyte couples enabling to achieve high voltage windows while maintaining electrode stability.
In the frame of this project, the postdoctoral fellow will actively interact with collaborators from IRIG/MEM for characterization (DRX, SAXS...) and CIRIMAT (electrochemistry), and will take part to the global project life (samples exchanging, scientific discussions, reporting...).