Materials for energy storage and energy saving (EES)
Since the birth of the Department, the group is active in fields of Energy Storage and Production, Gas Sensing, and characterization of Organic Molecular or Polymeric Materials. Group facilities comprise a fully equipped electrochemical lab with several potentiostats-galvanostats, two multichannel systems for long time testing, two semi-automatic glove boxes at N2 or Ar, a climatic chamber to control temperature and humidity, optical fibers coupled with UV-visible spectrophotometer for in-situ spectroelectrochemistry, and a quartz crystal electrochemical microbalance. Furnaces, thick/thin film applicators, and standard chemical equipments are available for chemical synthesis and electrode formulations.
Materials for energy storage
This research line is devoted mainly to the investigation of electrode and electrolyte materials for Electrochemical energy storage devices, such as alkaline ion batteries, metal batteries, redox flow batteries and organic batteries. Materials are produced by our team or in collaboration with national and international research groups. The electrical and electrochemical characterizations carried out using standard techniques such as impedance spectroscopy, DC Hebb Wagner conductivity measurement, cyclic voltammetry, potential spectroscopy, galvanostatic cycling, are performed with the aim to investigate the correlation among structural, morphological features and functional properties.
Different kinds of prototypes can be assembled, from low energy coin cells to large, single layer pouch cells, as well as three electrode cells for single interface characterization.
Materials for organic optoelectronics
Since 15 years, the group collaborate with organic chemistries of the department to characterize dye molecules, tiophene and pyrrole based monomers, and poly-tiophene based polymers for electro-optic applications (solar cells and electrochromic devices). The systems are characterized respect to their electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical properties in solution or in solid state (as thin film). The electronic properties, the energy levels, and the electro-optical characteristic are correlated to the chemical structure and to the film morphology. Redox mechanisms in conducting polymers are also investigated.
Research Team
Prof. Riccardo Ruffo
Dr. Nicolò Pianta
Research Lab
U5 Building, 1st Floor, Room 1016