Event Details

Professor Ana Jorge Sobrido of Queen Mary University of London gives a talk on sustainable electrodes for flow batteries. Also available on Teams.

Escalating greenhouse gas emissions and associated climate volatility represents an existential threat to humanity. Deep and rapid decarbonisation of the global energy systems require the wholesale replacement of fossil fuels with renewable resources (e.g., wind, solar). However, these resources are intermittent and unpredictable challenging the existing grid infrastructure which is based on the just-in-time dispatchable generation enabled by combustion of fossil fuels. As such, flexible energy management systems, including electrochemical energy storage technologies, are urgently required to enable reliable electricity delivery from the variable assets. Among them, flow batteries are excellent candidates for large-scale, long duration energy storage due to their flexible design, long service life, high reliability, and environmental friendliness. Nevertheless, this technology is still in its infancy in terms of optimisation of materials and battery design that can lead to improvement in performance and cost. Our research seeks to improve upon one of their performance-determining components: the electrodes. In this talk, Professor Sorbiso will present the work developed by her group on the manufacturing of sustainable electrodes for flow batteries using electrospinning, 3D printing and textile waste, and mass transport and charge transfer processes are improved by effective surface functionalisation and interconnected porous structure.

The talk will take place in the Cavendish Colloquium Room in the Faraday Complex and via Teams – join here