Clean energy production and utilisation
The generation, storage and transport of clean energy is one of the most pressing problems facing our society today, in the light of climate change, rapid growth in developing countries and the dwindling sources of fossil fuels. Research projects that address some of these issues have been part of the ARCCFN’s programs since the beginning, and the program restructuring into more clearly defined themes is intended to further strengthen the collaboration between groups and institutions that already mark this Centre.
The major focus of our Centre’s research lies in the areas of energy generation (fuel cell membranes, thin films with photovoltaic applications) and storage (hydrogen storage materials). The projects range across the different nodes and have produced a number of high impact publications and attract significant industrial input.
This program currently runs the following projects:
Designing of photoanodes for dye-sensitised solar cells
(Amal, Tsekuoras, Teoh, Mozer, Mori, Wallace)
This project investigates the designing of flame-made TiO2 nanoparticles for utilisation as a DSSC photoanode. A paper reporting the effect of TiO2 crystallite size on charge transport and its implications on DSSC is currently under review.
Fischer-Tropsch catalysis
(Trimm, Cant, Scott, Kok, Teoh, Grunwaldt, Mädler)
this work involves the designing of novel FT catalysts by flame spray pyrolysis.
Alumina-based Fischer-Tropsch catalysis
(Trimm, Cant, Scott, Kok)
This project investigates the role of different components of an alumina-based catalyst in governing activity and selectivity in the Fischer-Tropsch reaction.
Flame-synthesis of copper-based catalysts for CO-PROX
(Amal, Kydd, Teoh, Scott, Wong, Wang, Yu, Zou)
The work investigates the design and role of Cu-based catalysts for the preferential oxidation (PROX) of carbon monoxide.
Titanate nanostructure formation using hydrothermal synthesis
(Amal, Scott, Ye, Kiatkittipong)
This project studies the hydrothermal synthesis of titanate nanostructures including nanoribbons and nanotubes. The influence of synthesis parameters on particle architecture is being investigated.
Photocatalytic water splitting over oxide photocatalysts
(Amal, Kho, Teoh, Mädler, Kudo, Iwase)
This work explores the designing of a range of simple to complex oxide photocatalysts for the photocatalytic water splitting reaction.
Development of new oxide photocatalyst for water splitting
(Amal, Iwase)
This project looks into the production of skeletal iron, particularly usable iron/aluminium phases, their leaching kinetics and the use of skeletal iron for the water-gas-shift process.
Skeletal catalysts
(Wainwright, Smith, Scott, Risbud, Leoni)
This project investigates the production of skeletal iron, particularly usable iron/aluminium phases, their leaching kinetics and the use of skeletal iron for the water-gas-shift process.
Anodised metal oxide for dye-sensitised solar
(Amal, Ye, Ng, Ng, Yun)
Nanoporous vanadium nitrides for supercapacitors
(Glushenkov, Chen, Jurcakova, Lu)
New nanomaterials electrodes for high-performance Li-ion batteries
(Glushenkov, Chen, Liu (UOW))
Bio-fuels for transport
(Wilson, Kannangara, Tran, Milev)
Non-precious nano-catalysts are being developed that can upgrade algal biofuels based on Botryococcus and Chlorella extracts.
Supercapacitors
(Jurcakova, Rufford, Lu)
This research mainly focuses on the optimisation of the porous structure and the surface chemistry of carbons for maximum energy storage. Development of the low-cost activated carbons from organic biowastes for application in supercapacitors is another key research topic carried out at the Centre.
New nanocarbons for energy storage applications
(Milev, Kannangara, Wilson, Pandolfo and Jurcakova)
Graphene electrodes for supercapacitors
(Gentle, Lu, Jurcakova)
The core concept of this research is to optimise the performance of graphene-based electrodes by tailoring nanoporous structure, lattice dopant, surface functionalities and mechanical properties, and most crucially, to understand the basic electrochemical processes on multifunctional graphene-based electrodes.
