At the beginning of the project, the researcher developed free-standing 3D printed supercapacitors for energy storage applications. The researcher first modified a nanocarbon-based 3D-printed electrode through electrodeposition of MoSx on the printed electrode’s surface. This study shows the integration of 3D-printing and electrodeposition techniques for facile and scalable fabrication of freestanding electrodes for SC applications.
The researcher extended the work to develop 3D-printed asymmetric supercapacitors to obtain higher energy density. Asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs) were fabricated by assembling the exfoliated Ti3C2Tx (Ex-Ti3C2Tx) as the negative electrode and transition metal chalcogenide (MoS3−x) coated 3D-printed nanocarbon framework (MoS3−x@3DnCF) as the positive electrode utilizing polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/H2SO4 gel electrolyte, which provides a wide ΔV of 1.6 V. The customized ASCs provided excellent capacitive performance.
Journal publication
Kalyan Ghosh, and Martin Pumera, Nanoscale 2021,13, 5744-5756. DOI: 10.1039/D0NR06479C
Kalyan Ghosh, and Martin Pumera, Small Methods 2021, 5, 2100451. DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202100451
The researcher further extended the work to fabricate customized filament utilizing the MoS2 as electroactive material, carbon materials as conductive fillers, and a base polymer polylactic acid (PLA). PLA is an extensively used polymer for FDM printing. With the blooming of FDM printing, failed printed parts are often discarded and thus a lot of PLA polymer waste is increasing nowadays. To make valuable use of waste PLA polymer, it can be reused for making filaments modified with 2D materials and conductive carbon for useful electrochemical applications. The researcher used commercial PLA as a reference instead of waste PLA-printed objects. Nevertheless, the waste PLA-printed objects can be shredded into smaller PLA particles. This study creates a profound impact on filament fabrication for FDM 3D printing because it shows the potential to reveal the other 2D nanomaterials-based filament for several electrochemical applications in the future through tailoring the composition of active materials.
Journal publication
Kalyan Ghosh, Siowwoon Ng, Christian Iffelsberger, and Martin Pumera, Applied Materials Today 2022, 26, 101301. DOI:10.1016/j.apmt.2021.101301
Considering the vast demand for energy, and zero carbon emission, the researcher explored the energy conversion area to find out the alternate material for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) that could replace expensive Pt. He has shown facile incorporation of the electrocatalytically active 2D nanomaterials (MoS2 and VSx) on the large-scale graphite film to enhance its electrochemical performance. The VSx/graphite film functions as a photo-electrocatalyst for enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction by visible and near-infrared light irradiation. The flexible VSx/graphite film with near-infrared photoresponse can be directed to outer space applications, such as absorbing infrared irradiation on Mars.
Journal publication
Cameron Jellett,*, Kalyan Ghosh*, Michelle P. Browne, Veronika Urbanová, and Martin Pumera, ACS Applied Energy Materials 2021, 4, 6975−6981. *equivalent contribution, DOI:10.1021/acsaem.1c01047
Siowwoon Ng, Kalyan Ghosh, Jan Vyskocil, and Martin Pumera, Chemical Engineering Journal, 2022, 135131. DOI:10.1016/j.cej.2022.135131
Conference-Oral presentation
Kalyan Ghosh, and Martin Pumera, 3D-printing of electrochemically active filament for energy conversion and storage, World Conference on Materials Science and Nanotechnology on 01- 03 July 2022, Munich, Germany.
To aim for green hydrogen production targeting the ‘net zero carbon emission’ goal, the researcher has developed a contact-separation mode TENG (CS-TENG) to convert the ambient mechanical energy to chemical energy. The CS-TENG can harvest energy from even simple mechanical actions such as human hand clapping and walking. The energy generated from hand clapping mode was applied for water electrolysis to evolve hydrogen and oxygen. Such hydrogen production can be called green hydrogen as it is produced by using renewable mechanical energy. This shows a new path of generating green hydrogen anywhere, anytime around us using abundant mechanical energy.
Poster presentation
Kalyan Ghosh, Christian Iffelsberger and Martin Pumera, Magnetic COF and PDMS/MXene based Triboelectric nanogenerator, CzechNanoLab User Meeting, May 12, 2022. Ref.: CzechNanoLab User Meeting - May 12, 2022 – Research Infrastructure (ceitec.cz).
