Alberto Castro-Muñiz

A system-level Li–S strategy combines CO ₂ -activated porous carbon, LiFSI-modified SSE chemistry, and practical pouch-cell validation to improve sulfur utilization and cycling durability.

Controlled carbonization of hybrid NiOF powders produces graphite-encapsulated Ni nanoparticles with excellent performance for acidic water remediation. The powders can be easily recovered by magnetic separation after the adsorption process.

The preparation of 2H-phase MoS₂ thin nanosheets by electrochemical delamination remains a challenge, despite numerous efforts in this direction. In this work, by choosing appropriate intercalating cations for cathodic delamination, the insertion process was facilitated, leading to a higher degree of exfoliation while maintaining the original 2H-phase of the starting bulk MoS₂ material. Specifically, trimethylalkylammonium cations were tested as electrolytes, outperforming their bulkier tetraalkylammonium counterparts, which have been the focus of past studies. The performance of novel electrochemically derived 2H-phase MoS₂ nanosheets as electrode material for electrochemical energy storage in lithium-ion batteries was investigated. The lower thickness and thus higher flexibility of cathodically exfoliated MoS₂ promoted better electrochemical performance compared to liquid-phase and ultrasonically assisted exfoliated MoS₂, both in terms of capacity (447 vs. 371 mA·h·g⁻¹ at 0.2 A·g⁻¹) and rate capability (30% vs. 8% capacity retained when the current density was increased from 0.2 A·g⁻¹ to 5 A·g⁻¹), as well as cycle life (44% vs. 17% capacity retention at 0.2 A·g⁻¹ after 580 cycles). Overall, the present work provides a convenient route for obtaining MoS₂ thin nanosheets for their advantageous use as anode material for lithium storage.

This paper presents a series of surface experiments simulating underground coal gasification (UCG). The main goal of the experiments was to investigate the influence of the gasification medium and the coal rank on the gasification process. Four multi-day trials were carried out using a laboratory gasification facility designed for the large-scale experimental simulations of UCG and located in the Experimental Mine “Barbara”, located at Mikołów, Poland. Two Polish bituminous coals were investigated: coal sourced from “Piast-Ziemowit” mine and coal sourced from “Wesoła” mine. Each of the two coals was gasified in two separate experiments using oxygen-enriched air (OEA) and pure oxygen as the respective gasifying agents. Gasification with oxygen resulted in significantly higher gas quality and higher process efficiency than gasification with OEA. Higher concentrations of hydrogen (23.2% and 25.5%) and carbon monoxide (31.8% and 33.4%) were obtained when oxygen was used as a gasifying reagent, while lower concentrations were obtained in the case of gasification with OEA (7.1% and 9.5% of hydrogen; 6.4% and 19.7% of carbon monoxide). Average gas calorific values were 7.96 MJ/Nm³ and 9.14 MJ/Nm³ for the oxygen experiments, compared to 2.25 MJ/Nm³ and 3.44 MJ/Nm³ for the OEA experiments (“Piast-Ziemowit” coal and “Wesoła” coal, respectively). The higher coalification degree of “Wesoła” coal (82.01% of carbon) compared to the “Piast-Ziemowit” coal (68.62% of carbon) definitely improves the gas quality and energy efficiency of the process. The rate of water condensate production was higher for the oxygen gasification process (5.01 kg/h and 3.63 kg/h) compared to the OEA gasification process (4.18 kg/h and 2.63 kg/h, respectively), regardless of the type of gasified coal. Additionally, the textural characteristics (porosity development) of the chars remaining after coal gasification experiments were analyzed. A noticeable development of pores larger than 0.7 nm was only observed for the less coalified “Piast-Ziemowit” coal when analyzed under the more reactive atmosphere of oxygen.

Fullerene-based microporous polymers synthesized by polyesterification of fullerenol possess excellent stability against solvents and exposed C₆₀ surfaces confirmed by enhanced hydrogen spillover.

In this work, we have described the characterization of hybrid silica nanoparticles of 50 nm size, showing outstanding size homogeneity, a large surface area, and remarkable CO₂ sorption/desorption capabilities. A wide battery of techniques was conducted ranging from spectroscopies such as: UV-Vis and IR, to microscopies (SEM, AFM) and CO₂ sorption/desorption isotherms, thus with the purpose of the full characterization of the material. The bare SiO₂ (50 nm) nanoparticles modified with 3-aminopropyl (triethoxysilane), APTES@SiO₂ (50 nm), show a remarkable CO₂ sequestration enhancement compared to the pristine material (0.57 vs. 0.80 mmol/g respectively at 50 °C). Furthermore, when comparing them to their 200 nm size counterparts (SiO₂ (200 nm) and APTES@SiO₂ (200 nm)), there is a marked CO₂ capture increment as a consequence of their significantly larger micropore volume (0.25 cm³/g). Additionally, ideal absorbed solution theory (IAST) was conducted to determine the CO₂/N₂ selectivity at 25 and 50 °C of the four materials of study, which turned out to be >70, being in the range of performance of the most efficient microporous materials reported to date, even surpassing those based on silica.