Group leader: Marcella Bini

Group members: Marco Ambrosetti, Chiara Milanese, Alessandro Girella

The energy request because of the diffusion on a large scale of electric vehicles and electronic portable devices is rapidly growing. On the other hand, it is also mandatory to reduce the use of fossil fuels for the climate preservation and the progress towards the green transition required to the entire world. However, the renewable resources (wind or solar) are intermittent, so requiring energy storage systems for the stationary applications. The most diffuse and performing systems are represented by the batteries, particularly lithium ion batteries, already marketed by many years, that should however be replaced by more sustainable alternatives, such as sodium ion batteries.

In this field, we synthesize, by different synthesis routes (wet or solid-state methods, sputtering or electrospinning), cathode or anode materials for lithium or sodium batteries. All the materials are characterized from the physico-chemical (by X-ray diffraction measurements with Rietveld structural refinements, SEM/EDS, Raman, FT-IR, EPR and Mössbauer spectroscopies) and electrochemical (cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic measurements and impedance spectroscopy) point of view to evaluate the performances in semi-cells. The determination of the involved reaction mechanisms could be based on Large Facilities measurements (Elettra, ESRF), such as operando diffraction, EXAFS or Raman spectroscopies.

Physics Department, (University of Pavia)
University of Firenze,
University of Chieti,
Politecnico of Turin,
RSE Company

Daniele Spada, Matteo Aramini, Maria Fittipaldi, Alberto Cini, Martina Fracchia, Paolo Ghigna, Alessandro Girella, Chiara Milanese, Marcella Bini.
Spectroscopic techniques and DFT calculations to highlight the effect of Fe3+ on the properties of FeNb11O29, anode material for Lithium-ion Batteries,
J. Phys Chem C, (2022) 126, 4698-4709; doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c10573

Daniele Spada, Pantaleone Bruni, Stefania Ferrari, Benedetta Albini, Pietro Galinetto, Vittorio Berbenni, Alessandro Girella, Chiara Milanese, Marcella Bini.
Self-supported fibrous Sn/SnO2@C nanocomposite as superior anode material for lithium-ion batteries, Materials
Special Issue Photo/Electrochemical Properties and Applications of Inorganic Nanomaterials (2022), 15, 919, doi: 10.3390/ma15030919

Daniele Spada, Benedetta Albini, Pietro Galinetto, Daniele Versaci, Carlotta Francia, Silvia Bodoardo, Giorgio Bais, Marcella Bini.
FeNb11O29, Anode Material for High-power LIBs: Pseudocapacitance and Symmetrisation Unravelled with Advanced Electrochemical and In Situ/Operando Techniques,
Electrochimica Acta 393 (2021) 139077, doi: 10.1016/j.electacta.2021.139077