Academic Supervisors: Dr John Low, Dr Chaoying Wan, Prof Paul Jennings

Project Overview

The market for supercapacitors (SCs) is growing rapidly, driven by increasing demands from green transportation (hybrid and electric vehicles) and balancing grid requirements as activities in intermittent renewable energy increases globally. Current SCs are characterised by their high power capability, typically over kW/kg (~ 10 to 100 times greater than batteries) and exceptional cycle life (~ tens of thousands cycles). However, they are expensive and low energy density devices, typically over 10% of conventional batteries.

Objectives

This PhD project aims to develop materials for supercapacitors to achieve higher energy density and lower cost devices. More specifically, this project will synthesise materials by chemical and electrochemical techniques, integrate them into real devices, test and characterise their performance, and conduct post-mortem analysis of the materials and devices.

Key Warwick Facilities

This project will have access to WMG academics and new state-of-the-art facilities in the EnergyInnovation Centre (EIC) and International Institute for Nanocomposite Manufacturing (IINM). Facilities include wet chemistry processing tools, manufacturing and assembly tools for supercapacitors, and testing and characterisations suites.

Candidate Requirements

This project is suitable for candidates with a technical background in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Electrochemistry and Materials Sciences. This project will provide a full studentship funding support at UK/EU level.

Candidates from non-EU countries can enquire for more information.