Materials Chemistry

Biography

Biography: Shi Xue DOU

Abstract

Energy storage has become a game changer in entire energy system and critical element for integration of renewable energy to power supply system. Rapid increase in renewable energy leads to smart buildings, smart grid and smart cities but these are impossible without energy storage. We have pursued a smart sodium storage system to be an alternative to Li ion battery (LIB) as sodium ion battery (SIB) is technically competitive and commercially advantageous vs LIB. We report synthesis of uniform yolk-shell iron sulphide/carbon nano-spheres as cathode materials for the emerging sodium sulfide battery to achieve remarkable high capacity, delivering energy density even higher than Li ion battery. The low-cost and sustainable Na/FeS@C battery with ultrahigh energy density is a promising candidate for stationary energy storage. 3D nitrogen chemically modified graphene can be used as anode to significantly improve the overall performance of sodium ion battery, delivered high initial reversible capacity much higher than the state-the-art anode for Li ion battery. N-doping induced defects to facilitate the diffusion of the large-size sodium ions, enhance the storage of sodium ions and minimize the effect of volume expansion during discharge–charge processes. We developed a scalable ultrasonic exfoliation technique to synthesize MoS2 nano-sheets to achieve high-rate transportation of sodium ions when used as anode materials in sodium-ion batteries. MoS2 nano-sheets exhibit a high, reversible sodium storage capacity and excellent cyclability. A novel Sn-P composite in large quantities is prepared by direct low-speed ball milling of the P and Sn using CMC binder delivered high discharge capacity and a good cycle life. As a general approach, a bottom-up method is proposed to synthesis ultrathin 2D transitional metal oxide nano-sheets from molecules for broad range of electrode materials preparation which has high surface area and high reactivity.