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Abstract:
Thin carbon sheets enhance titanium dioxide-based batteries

A splash of graphene improves battery materials

Richland, WA | Posted on September 23rd, 2009

Researchers would like to develop lithium-ion batteries using titanium dioxide, an inexpensive material. But titanium dioxide on its own doesn't perform well enough to replace the expensive, rare-earth metals or fire-prone carbon-based materials used in today's lithium-ion batteries. To test whether graphene, a good conductor on its own, can help, PNNL's Gary Yang and colleagues added graphene, sheets made up of single carbon atoms, to titanium dioxide. When they compared how well the new combination of electrode materials charged and discharged electric current, the electrodes containing graphene outperformed the standard titanium dioxide by up to three times. Graphene also performed better as an additive than carbon nanotubes.

Yang will discuss this work and provide an overview of the field of electrical storage materials. (Contact Mary Beckman, 509-375-3688)

Reference: Jun Liu, Multifunctional materials from self-assembly for energy storage, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 10:30 a.m. to noon in the Hawthorne/Sellwood room at the Doubletree Lloyd Center. NOTE: Gary Yang will be speaking in place of Jun Liu.

TIPSHEET: Researchers from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will be presenting at this year's Micro Nano Breakthrough Conference in Portland, Oregon. See http://oregonstate.edu/conferences/MNBC/

This work was supported by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

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About Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a Department of Energy Office of Science national laboratory where interdisciplinary teams advance science and technology and deliver solutions to America's most intractable problems in energy, national security and the environment. PNNL employs 4,200 staff and has an $850 million annual budget. Ohio-based Battelle has managed PNNL since the lab's inception in 1965.

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Contacts:
Mary Beckman

509-375-3688

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