Ricerc@Sapienza

The aim of the CUTE project is to study the structure, thermodynamic and electrochemical properties of alkaline nanoparticles confined into nanopores of large surface area host materials (i.e. mesoporous carbons or silica gels).
The practical use of alkali metals as reagents for reductive organic chemistry or as negative electrodes in secondary non-aqueous batteries has been limited owing to safety considerations and immense difficulty in industrial scale-up. Milder alternatives in organic reduction chemistry rely on nanoconfined alkali metals (i.e. Na or Na/K alloys) impregnated into large surface area silica. Very recently, inspired by the commercial K-Na-silica composite, K-Na alloys and Li have been absorbed by melt impregnation onto carbon papers. These composite materials have been demonstrated as promising negative electrodes in sodium and lithium non-aqueous rechargeable batteries with mitigated dendrite growth upon cycling.
Here our goal is to tackle the synthesis, physico-chemical characterization and electrochemical tests in lithium and sodium non-aqueous secondary galvanic cells of nanocomposite materials constituted by alkali-metals nanoparticles hosted into large surface area materials like silica gels and mesoporous carbons. The aim is to prepare alkaline-based nanocomposites stable in air thus opening the door for practical exploitation with industrial-suitable scale-up. To this aim the CUTE project will last 12 months and will develop (4) different research activities (Preparation of (Li,Na,K)/SiO2 and (Li,Na,K)/carbon nanocomposites; Investigation of the stability in air, structure, morphology and bonding properties of the nanocomposite materials; Analysis of the thermodynamic properties; Evaluation of the electrochemical properties and performances non-aqueous Li/Na galvanic cells) carried out by a Sapienza-CNR joint team constituted by (4) permanent Sapienza research staff, (2) permanent CNR researchers and (1) non-permanent post-doc.