Aktuelle Nachrichten der AG Oschatz

In his paper, Johannes utilized the structural flexibility of soft carbon materials at elevated temperatures to induce closed porosity and enhance the low-voltage storage of sodium ions. Prior to the pore closure as a result of the high temperature treatment, the originally non-porous carbons were activated via a CO2 activation process with different durations to create a varying microporosity. A linear correlation of the micropore volume and plateau capacity could confirm the “hard carbon like” pore filling mechanism. For more information: https://doi.org/10.1002/celc.202500184

The AG Oschatz wishes everyone relaxing holidays. Thank you for all the great collaborations this year. We are excited to see and work with you again next year after recharging all kinds of our batteries :)

Last week, we had the pleasure of visiting our Canadian collaboration partners Dr. Weixing Chen and Dr. Amit Kumar, in Edmonton at the U of A. Within the project OilsandBatt, we develop hard carbons from Alberta asphaltenes for sodium ion batteries. Thanks for having us and the fruitful discussions.

Young talent Yijeong Kim joined the junior group of Dr. Neubert. Yijeong holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Korea University in Seoul and is conducting a voluntary internship with us to become familiar with the chemistry research landscape in Germany. She is focusing her work on functionalizing porous carbon materials for energy applications. Welcome, Yijeong, and good luck with your research!

Together with our CataLight collaborators, Lingli published a paper in Advanced Functional Materials. The paper presents the synthesis of hollow poly(heptazine imide) spheres via a novel strategy that combines hard templating with ionothermal synthesis. It enables precise tuning of surface area, pore volume, hydrophilicity, optical absorption, band-edge positions, and metal composition for advanced photocatalytic applications. Find more information about the work here: https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202504107

Sofiia publication entitled “Controlling the structure and sodium storage properties of glucose-derived hard carbons by pre-carbonization heating rate” systematically investigates how the condensation conditions of hard carbon precursors affect the structural features and sodium storage performance of the resulting materials. More information: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5NR01053E

Rudolf successfully defended his Master thesis in the past month. He designed cells that are resistant to harsh electrolytes which are used for Al-N2 batteries. Now, as a PhD student, he will dive deeper into the development of Al-N2 batteries within the Carl-Zeiss foundation funded Nexus project ReAlBatt. Congratulations and we are happy to have you as a team member Rudi!

This month, our dear Merline defended her master thesis. Merline successfully designed hard carbons for sodium ion battery anodes derived from asphaltenes from Canadian oil sands. She chemically modified the asphaltenes and studied structural differences resulting in different Na storage capacities of the final hard carbons. Congratulations Merline and all the best for your future.

Uli published his first paper with the title "Controlling and Understanding the Impact of Closed Pore Size on Sodium Storage in Hard Carbons via Controlled Pyrolysis of Molecular Precursors" in ChemElectroChem. Cyclodextrins as model materials were investigated to correlate the sodium storage to the pore size of hard carbon. By varying the heat treatment temperature different pore sizes can be adjusted leading to different electrochemical behaviour which can be observed in charge/discharge curves. For more information check out the publication: https://doi.org/10.1002/celc.202500241

The CilCat study investigates the interface formed between carbon pore structures and ionic liquids (IL) in microporous carbons with a special focus on the gas adsorption properties of the hybrid materials. The results demonstrate how ionic liquids can be used to modify pore structures and influence solid-liquid-gas interfaces, providing insights into tailoring properties such as gas uptake by their interaction with porous carbon materials. More information about the work: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smll.202501928

Carlyn Danese spent three months in our group through the DAAD RISE program, collaborating with HIPOLE Jena on polymer–carbon composites for CO2 utilisation. She now returns to her home institution, Mount Holyoke College. It was a pleasure hosting you in Jena, and we hope our paths cross again soon!

Recently, Dr. Abdullah Khan joined our team as a Postdoc on the ERC Starting grant project CilCat. He will be working on the adsorption and conversion of small molecules on carbon. Welcome to Jena!