Muñoz Group

The Nanomaterials for Energy Storage and Conversion group conducts both fundamental and application-oriented research on new nanomaterials and nanostructures that can be used for energy storage and conversion. Particular emphasis is at the moment placed on the preparation of hollow, porous nanostructures and ordered nanowire/nanotube arrays of various inorganic materials, which not only possess large surface to volume ratios but also facilitate the transportation of electrolytes/ions/charge carriers. Comprehensive structural/compositional characterization in conjunction with studies of photoelectric, electrochemical and catalytic properties are carried out in order to elucidate the structure-property relation, to get a fundamental understanding about the underlying physics and chemistry in energy storage and conversion processes, and in turn to help materials design and optimization. Our research activities are primarily focused on the following areas:

Research lines:

• Advanced catalytic materials for electrochemical energy conversion
• Solar fuel production
• Advanced electrode materials for rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors

Electrocatalysis. The group is committed to developing Pt-free electrocatalysts for use in hydrogen/oxygen evolution, oxygen reduction, and small molecule oxidation reactions.

Solar fuel production. Research efforts are devoted to: 1) Nanoatructured photocathodes and photoanodes; 2) Coupling of semiconductor photoelectrodes with HER or OER catalysts; 3) Improving lifetime of photoelectrodes.

Energy storage. The group is working on 1) Fabrication of hybrid/composite nanostructures; 2) Large-scale synthesis of porous/hollow nanostructures for use as electrode materials in Li-ion/Na-ion batteries and supercapacitors; 3) Flexible energy storage devices.