THE YOO GROUP
Fossil-based electricity generation causes global environmental problems. Renewable energy resources such as solar or wind have the potential to provide a clean and sustainable energy future, but the intermittent nature of these resources causes a mismatch of peak energy production and electricity demands. Thus, the rapid development of advanced electrochemical energy storage technologies is critical to stabilizing sustainable energy systems and the continuous delivery of their generated electricity.
So far, a large body of research in this field has focused on developing nanostructured solid-state electrode materials to improve the energy performance, but solid-electrode batteries typically have low specific power (i.e., slow charge/discharge rates) due to the inherent diffusion and kinetic limitations as well as limited cycle life.
Our research group mainly focuses on synthesizing and utilizing liquid-state redox-active organic molecules for applications in electrochemical energy storage. Redox-active electrolytes provide faradaic energy storage and the use of an organic framework enables structural modification to further enhance performance. Through a combination of organic chemistry and electrochemical evaluation, new designer redox couples will be identified and tested for energy storage device systems. In addition, chemical and electrochemical processes at the electrode/electrolyte interface will be studied to develop a mechanistic understanding of the structure-function-performance relationships in organic redox species. This work will lay the foundation for a broader study of redox-active organic molecules and create a basic scientific platform to optimize total device performance.
Because the proposed work is multi-disciplinary in nature with many sub-areas to explore (for example, optimizing structure and morphology of carbonaceous materials to find the best electrode material for specific redox-organic molecules and device engineering to build robust cells, etc.), building collaborations, both inside and outside GIST, will be natural and continuously pursued.
Overview of our research program
Our group will explore multidisciplinary approaches in pursuit of advanced energy storage
that addresses global energy and environmental challenges.
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