Progetti di ricerca

Electrochemical energy storage (EES) is crucial in the carbon-neutral future. Nevertheless, the current battery value chain has significant risks, especially concerning the supply of critical raw materials. eNargiZinc aims at developing new knowledge, technology and commercially exploitable products related to innovative and… Leggi tutto affordable next-generation EES devices, targeting long-term sustainability through the use of abundant and renewable materials and low environmental-impact production processes. A rigorous training-throughresearch programme for eleven Doctoral Candidates (DCs)—eight DCs funded by the EU and three DCs funded by the UK national funding agency (UKRI)—has been designed through an interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach, involving studies on all the essential parts needed to develop sodium-ion batteries, zinc-air batteries, and zinc-ion batteries/supercapacitors. The research within eNargiZinc will focus on developing sustainable electrode materials (biomass-derived carbons and their composites, redox-active polymers, hybrid transition metal oxides, and interphases for anode-less concepts), electrolytes (solid-state and gel-polymer types), and, especially, on integrating all the developed components into full cells at an industrially-relevant scale. A Personalised Training Package for each DC will be tailored to allow them to acquire the required skills over the three years of employment within the network. To this aim, secondments to other partners (especially in the non-academic sector), training in complementary skills, and network-wide training events will be implemented. The consortium, which is composed of six beneficiaries and twelve associated partners, is addressed to achieve the objectives of eNargiZinc and is based on excellence, synergy and complementarity. Industrial partners will play a key role in the network, by providing the DCs with exposure to the private sector and access to industrially-relevant facilities, which are essential to validate the findings obtained at lab-scale.

The increasingly rapidly growing electric vehicles (EV) market results in higher growth rates in all the LIBs volume categories, from cradle to grave. This trend makes ever more urgent the boosting of battery recycling for several reasons, the most important ones being:… Leggi tutto i) the preservation of the environment, and ii) the development of a circular economy reducing the demand for virgin materials and the Europe’s dependence from third countries. All these crucial aspects need to be handled through the development of new recycling and re-use concepts, fostering demonstrable effects in terms of efficiency and sustainability. RENOVATE aims at developing and demonstrating new circular economy solutions for the European battery value-chain, targeting the re-use of 100% of inspecification cell fractions (e.g. metallic foil, graphite, electrolyte, fluorinated compounds and cathode active materials) within the battery value chain, fostering a closed-loop circular approach that can reduce battery material waste going to landfill, increase the availability of battery precursors in the European battery eco-system, and demonstrate new added-value business cases for recyclers and battery materials users. All recycled materials will be recovered over all potential streams (pre-customer scraps and End-of-Life products). The ultimate goal is to support the green and digital transformation of the European battery industry to increase its competitiveness and promote its just growth path. Holistic, flexible, and closed-loop processes for the recycling of EoL batteries based on both low and high energy density chemistries will be designed and validated to allow real and easily implementable “net zero carbon” process. A specific aim will also be smart re-integration of the side streams (e.g. waste chemicals/solvents) in the recycling processes and/or in in other industrial activities to minimize the residues coming from batteries production.

BattValue aims to develop four-level course modules of introductory, basic, intermediate and advanced courses, as well as trainings, in the battery field for industrial stakeholders working in the battery mineral/metal processing and refining, in battery (chemical) production and recycling, in technology development companies,… Leggi tutto in energy sector, in automotive industry and related areas. BattValue, is a demanddriven project, based on the industrial needs1,2 . Indeed, it touches the key aspects of the battery supply chain, based on the core competences required in companies, and will contribute to educate new professionals for new, high level jobs, including tools which promote more efficient use of resources with the aim of minimising the environmental impact of batteries (Battery Passport). Key outcomes of the project are achieved by detailed planning and marketing of the project during the first year.

Addressing the grand-challenges that the world is facing nowadays in connection with ‘energy’, ‘information’ and ‘health’ requires the development of unconventional methods for unprecedented visualization of matter. SMARTelectron aims at developing an innovative technological platform for designing, realizing and operating all-optical rapidly-programmable phase… Leggi tutto masks for electrons. By introducing a new paradigm where properly synthesized ultrafast electromagnetic fields will be used for engineering the phase space of a free-electron wave function, we will be able to achieve unprecedented space/time/energy/momentum shaping of electron matter waves, surpassing conventional passive monolithic schemes and revolutionizing the way materials are investigated in electron microscopy. Such unique high-speed, flexible and precise full-phase multidimensional control, will enable novel advanced imaging approaches in electron microscopy with enhanced features, such as higher image-resolution, lower electron dose, faster acquisition rate, higher signal-to-noise ratio, and three-dimensional image reconstruction, together with higher temporal resolution and high energy-momentum sensitivity. In SMART-electron, we will make such potential a reality by implementing for the first time three beyond-the-state-of-the-art imaging techniques enabled by our photonicbased electron modulators, namely: (1) Ramsey-type Holography, (2) Electron Single-Pixel Imaging, and (3) Quantum Cathodoluminescence. Such new approaches will lead to unprecedented visualization of many-body states in quantum materials, real-time electrochemical reactions, and spatio-temporal localization of biomimetic nanoparticles in cells for drug delivery. By surpassing the current paradigms in terms of electron manipulation, the project has the potential to drive electron microscopy into a new and exciting age where scientists will benefit from new tools with unprecedented performances that were unimaginable until now.