Issue 5 – June 14, 2021

RESEARCH

Paper featured on a cover of Nanoscale elucidates how energy storage occurs in electrochemical supercapacitors. The authors analyzed by operando Raman spectroscopy the interactions between an electrode of carbon nanomaterial with nickel oxide, and an aqueous electrolyte. The study was carried out by researchers from CINE’s Advanced Energy Storage Program and collaborators.

• Go to the paper (Nanoscale).

• Read the news story on CINE website.

R&D

CINE researchers and collaborators have developed a route for the production of perovskite solar cells. They modified a scalable technique to produce solar cell layers with the quality required for high-performance devices. The final process was largely compatible with the industrial environment. A paper about this development was featured on the cover of a scientific journal.

• Go to the paper (Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research).

• Read the news story on CINE website.

RESEARCH

In water electrolysis, used to obtain hydrogen, a significant change in pH occurs in the region close to the electrode. When the reaction is carried out at an industrial level, this variation generates an extra consumption of electrical energy during the process. CINE researchers used computational methods to simulate the conditions that would mitigate this variation and its environmental and economic impact.

• Go to paper (International Journal of Hydrogen Energy).

RESEARCH

A CINE team used computational methods to study various aspects of 25 ionic liquids – promising compounds for use in high-performance battery electrolytes. The results should help develop new ionic liquid electrolytes and optimize existing ones.

• Go to paper (ACS Applied Energy Materials).

RESEARCH

A study with participation of a researcher from CINE combined for the first time two analysis techniques to investigate, at the molecular scale, the surface properties of water and ethanol solutions. The work contributes to the understanding of the effect of water and alcohol aerosols on climate change, since the surface composition of these mixtures, which form clouds in the atmosphere, impacts their ability to reflect sunlight.

• Go to paper (Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics).

Almir Oliveira Neto, senior researcher at IPEN and a researcher in the “Methane to Products” Program at CINE, received an honorable mention at IPEN’s Researcher of the Year Award. The distinction was granted for his “dedication and work developed in support of the institutional mission of constantly seeking to improve the quality of life of the Brazilian population”.

CINE Talk
The first webinar of the cycle will be held on June 25 at 10:00 am. Prof. Lucia Helena Mascaro (UFSCar), a researcher of the Dense Energy Carriers program at CINE, will talk about electrodeposition, a simple and low-cost technique for obtaining films of different thickness. The lecture will include results of electrodeposition of materials for applications in photo and electrocatalysis. For (free) registration, fill out this form.

CINE members participated in this traditional international Electrochemistry event. Prof Raphael Nagao (UNICAMP) was the main organizer of the symposium on complex and dynamic electrochemical systems. Igor Messias, Maria Rodrigues Pinto and Caio Guilherme Pereira dos Santos, who are doing their PhDs under the supervision of Nagao, presented in oral sessions their work on instrumentation for the study of CO2 reduction, and catalysts for CO2 reduction and water splitting.

The new CINE website was launched at the end of May, with bilingual content (Portuguese and English), renewed layout, refreshed CINE visual identity, new functions and more information and news. Explore the site.