Research Overview

Advanced Sustainable Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage Technologies

Dr Sobrido’s research focuses on the design, characterisation and testing in real devices of electroactive materials for energy conversion and storage technologies. The high cost of noble metal and /or non-sustainable materials commonly employed is one of the major drawbacks to their full development and exploitation. In particular, Ana’s group is interested in the development of high-performing energy materials obtained from sustainable resources using easy-to-scale processing techniques, such as electrospinning. Some examples of her research include the development of lignin-derived C/Ni1-xFexOy freestanding electrospun oxygen bifunctional electrocatalysts with application as cathodes in metal-air batteries (Fig. a), hematite/ carbon dots photoanodes for solar-driven water oxidation (Fig. b), B-doped carbons for oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells (Fig. c) and lignin-derived electrospun electrodes for redox flow batteries (Fig. d).