Electrochemical oceanic carbon capture: using bipolar membrane electrodialysis

To mitigate climate change, carbon capture is necessary. In addition to the energy transition towards renewable sources and green house gasses emission reduction, CO2 capture from flue gas and its sinks, including air and the ocean, must be promoted. By 2030, in less than 8 years, the global carbon capture capacity must increase 100 × (from the...

Making Better Batteries: Following Electrochemistry at the Nano Scale with Electron Microscopy

With the focus in automobile industry to switch from petroleum-based vehicles to all electric vehicles, the increasing demand on harvesting energy from renewable sources for a safer and greener future and the ever-increasing demand of the portable electronics systems, the need for better batteries is eminent. The ultimate aim of battery research...

Electrochemical production of hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide and water

Electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 is one possibility to solve the electrical energy storage problem and decrease the amount of CO2. Copper is the only metal that has been reported to produce hydrocarbons in the electrochemical CO2 reduction at ambient pressure and temperature. External parameters (potential, temperature and electrolyte), copper...

Multi-Fuel oxidation in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells: Model anodes and system studies

With the evolution of renewable energy technologies it has become necessary that a balance is found between power production with conventional energy sources and other long term solutions. SOFCs offer an alternative for utilising conventional fossil fuels as well as sustainable biomass derived fuels at a high efficiency. For use with such fuels,...

Lithium and Sodium Insertion in Nanostructured Titanates: Experiments and simulations

Nanostructured materials are featured by providing a variety of favourable electrical properties, as the reduced ion and electron transport paths enable significant enhancement on (de)intercalation rates and hence high power. For TiO2 anatase, nano-sizing results in a curved open cell voltage profile with a much shorter plateau region in...

Advanced Thin Layer Deposition of Materials for Li-ion Batteries via Electrospray

The remarkable physicist Richard P. Feynman once said, more than fifty years ago: ”the principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom. It is not an attempt to violate any laws; it is something, in principle, that can be done; but in practice, it has not been done because we are...

Microbiologically influenced corrosion in ship ballast tanks

Microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) is known to be a dangerous process in ship tanks due to its rapid and yet unpredictable occurrence, leading to extremely fast local corrosion, possibly jeopardizing the structural integrity, in a relatively short time. This project focuses on a fundamental understanding of MIC processes in ship...

Interaction between High-Voltage Cathode Materials and Ionic Liquids for Novel Li-Ion Batteries

The fast-growing market on electronic portable devices is possibly due to the development of Li-ion batteries. Besides, such batteries are the most promising candidates as energy storage media in (hybrid) electric vehicles, in the near future. However, improvements on electrochemical performances and on safety need to be achieved. With respect...

Synthesis and characterisation of tin and antimony nano-compounds for lithium battery applications

The growing interest during the past decades for mobile devices, like laptops, cellular phones, MP3 players, etc., is impressive. moreover, the concerns about climate changes have increased the worldwide interest for electrical and hybrid vehicles and intermittent sustainable energies, like solar and wind energy. These development have...

Redox biochemistry of Pyrococcus furiosus: Fundamental and applied aspects

In Pyrococcus furiosus (Pfu) ferredoxin (Fd) replaces NAD+ for carrying reducing equivalent to the oxidative phosphorylation machinery, and it also takes part in the regeneration of NADPH, which is necessary for biosynthetic pathways. Therefore, it plays a central role in various metabolic pathways of the organism. PfuFd is one of the most...

Characterization of Li4Ti5O12 and LiMn2O4 spinel materials treated with aqueous acidic solutions

In this thesis an investigation of two spinel materials, Li4Ti5O12 and LiMn2O4 used for Li-ion battery applications is performed interms of formation and reactivity towards acidic solutions. Subsequent characterizations such as structural, magnetic, chemical, and electrochemical characterizations are performed and discussed.

Synthesis and characterization of inverse spinels, intercalation materials for Li-ion batteries

Chapter 2 describes the solid-state synthesis of LiNiVO4 and LiCoVO4. The materials are prepared at 800C and are phase pure, as shown by X-ray diffraction and have the inverse spinel structure. Due to the solid-state synthesis the particle size is quite large and the particle size distribution is large, between 0.1mm and 10 mm, even after ball...

Polypyrrole electrochemistry: Environmentally friendly corrosion protection of steel: (im)possibilities

Chromate compounds have been widely used to improve the corrosion protection of galvanised steel and aluminium objects in the past decades. The hexavalent chromium in chromate enhances the adherence of coatings to galvanised steel and aluminium. Additionally, if the passive layers on these materials should become damaged, hexavalent chromium...

Electrochemically fabricated nanometer-sized molecular junctions

Electrochemical Characterisation of Filiform Corrosion on Aluminium Rolled Products

When aluminium is protected by an organic coating a special form of corrosion can occur underneath the organic coating; filiform corrosion. This form of corrosion manifests itself as threadlike filaments under the coating, it causes local delamination of the coating and the coating cannot protect the substrate anymore. The properties of the...