Browsing by Author "Glushenkov, AM"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Expanding the applications of the ilmenite mineral to the preparation of nanostructures: TiO2 nanorods and their photocatalytic properties in the degradation of oxalic acid
    (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013-01-14) Tao, T; Chen, Y; Zhou, D; Zhang, HZ; Liu, S; Amal, R; Sharma, N; Glushenkov, AM
    The mineral ilmenite is one of the most abundant ores in the Earth's crust and it is the main source for the industrial production of bulk titanium oxide. At the same time, methods to convert ilmenite into nanostructures of TiO2 (which are required for new advanced applications, such as solar cells, batteries, and photocatalysts) have not been explored to any significant extent. Herein, we describe a simple and effective method for the preparation of rutile TiO2 nanorods from ball-milled ilmenite. These nanorods have small dimensions (width: 520 nm, length: 50100 nm, thickness: 25 nm) and possess large specific surface areas (up to 97 m2?g-1). Dissolution/hydrolysis/precipitation is proposed as a growth mechanism. The nanorods were found to have attractive photocatalytic properties in the degradation of oxalic acid. Their photocatalytic activity is close to that of the benchmark Degussa P25 material and better than that of a commercial high-surface-area rutile powder. © 2013, Wiley-Blackwell
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Investigation of K modified P2 Na 0.7 Mn 0.8 Mg 0.2 O 2 as a cathode material for sodium-ion batteries
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2018-11-19) Sehrawat, D; Cheong, S; Rawal, A; Glushenkov, AM; Brand, HEA; Cowie, BCC; Gonzalo, E; Rojo, T; Naeyaert, PJP; Ling, CD; Avdeev, M; Sharma, N
    Sodium-ion batteries (NIBs) are emerging as a potentially cheaper alternative to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to the larger abundance of sodium and in some cases the similar intercalation chemistry to LIBs. Here we report the solid state synthesized K-modified P2 Na0.7Mn0.8Mg0.2O2 which adopts hexagonal P63/mmc symmetry. The second charge/discharge capacity for the as-prepared material is 115/111 mA h g−1 between 1.5–4.2 V at a current density of 15 mA g−1, which reduces to 61/60 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles. Scanning transmission electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDS) analysis shows a heterogeneous distribution of K and solid state 23Na NMR illustrates that the presence of K perturbs the local environment of Na within the P2 Na0.7Mn0.8Mg0.2O2 crystal structure. Larger scale X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) data on the K L-edge also illustrate that K is present on the surface of electrodes in preference to the bulk. In situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) data illustrates that the P2 structural motif is preserved, featuring a solid solution reaction for most of charge–discharge except at the charged and discharged states where multiple phases are present. The K-modified sample of P2 Na0.7Mn0.8Mg0.2O2 is compared with the K-free samples in terms of both structural evolution and electrochemical performance. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2019