UC Riverside

The fossil energy industry has caused drastic environmental impacts which have inspired researchers to develop sustainable technologies that can minimize those impacts. Here we explore two types of sustainable technologies: the first aims to directly mitigate environmental impacts after they have occurred, the second aims to prevent environmental impacts by replacing fossil energy sources.

First, we explore the application of a carbon sponge in oil recovery from water. With sustainability in mind, the sponge is derived from sucrose and is synthesized via a facile and scalable three-step process. The sponge offers versatility in absorption properties; both bulk and pulverized forms are capable of absorbing contaminants of various densities. Moreover, the sponge was engineered to be multi functional via minor modifications to the structure.

Next, we explore the sponge's application in next-generation lithium ion batteries as a power source to replace fossil energy. Due to market demands for high performing batteries, we take a minimalist approach towards materials-research and focus our investigations on the understudied applied-research areas which can help accelerate commercialization of lithium-sulfur technologies. This involves the exploration of scalable production methods such as large scale optimization of slurry densities, a redesign of full cell architectures, and cell operation investigations towards stable interfacial chemistries on the cathode and anode of lithium-sulfur batteries.