New Materials for Energy Storage: ERC Starting Grant for Tristan Petit
Dr. Tristat Petit receives the ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council for his research on a new class of materials for the storage of electrical energy, the so-called MXenes. © HZB/M. Setzpfandt
MXenes are 2D materials forming multi-layered particles (left) from which pseudocapacitors are made. © HZB/M. Künsting
Dr. Tristan Petit has received a prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council for 1.5 million euros over the next five years. The materials researcher will use the grant to investigate a new class of materials known as MXenes for storing electrical energy. MXenes can store and deliver large amounts of electrical energy extremely quickly. They might play an important role in energy storage alongside batteries and supercapacitors. The ERC Starting Grant is one of the most important European research grants.
A supply of climate-neutral energy that relies on solar and wind energy must be combined with efficient energy storage. The class of materials referred to as MXenes – which was only discovered in 2011 – offers interesting properties. MXenes are able to store large amounts of electrical energy very quickly, and thus might play a role in future energy storage alongside classic electric batteries (slow charging and discharging) and supercapacitors (fast, but low energy).
Solutions for the energy transition
“The properties of MXenes are not only extremely exciting scientifically, but also promise to contribute to the Energy Transition. I am very pleased about the ERC Starting Grant. It gives me the opportunity to understand how MXenes work and to advance the development of these materials”, says Petit.
MXenes consist of two-dimensional flakes of metal carbide and nitride that can be stacked on top of each other like puff pastry. Electrochemical reactions are able to take place between these layers. Petit now wants to find out what these reactions can be and exactly how they take place using the Starting Grant funds for his NANOMXM project (“Nanoscale Chemical Imaging of MXene Electrochemical Storage by Operando Scanning X-ray Microscopy”).
Analysis at BESSY II
“The soft X-rays from BESSY II are particularly well suited for studying photo- and electrochemical processes in nanomaterials. We are constantly improving the instruments and methods for this purpose”, explains Petit.
He intends to use BESSY II to analyse the processes at the interfaces between the MXene surfaces and a liquid electrolyte in a realistic environment (in situ) and during real-time charge and discharging (in operando). In addition to various methods of X-ray spectroscopy, he will employ scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM). Petit will develop an electrochemical cell for this purpose that can be used to study the properties of MXene.
“We warmly congratulate Tristan Petit on his research plans. BESSY II is an ideal platform for carrying them out, and they will dovetail perfectly with our other energy research. If the project is successful in mapping electrochemical reactions in MXenes and applying this understanding to advance the development of these materials, it will be a great step forward“, says Prof. Bernd Rech, Scientific Director of the HZB.
About Tristan Petit
Tristan Petit completed his initial studies in Zurich at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and his doctoral studies at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan near Paris. Following research residencies at ETH Zurich and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), he came to Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) on a Humboldt Fellowship in 2013. He received a Freigeist Fellowship from the Volkswagen Foundation in 2015 and established a new research Group on carbon-based nanomaterials at the HZB. Together with his team, he developed the idea for the EU NANOMXM project and also conducted the initial experiments on MXenes.
Further information:
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 947852).
Interesting MXene results from the Petit Young Investigator Group on Nanomaterials: Fast and furious: " New class of 2D materials stores electrical energy"
- Fascinating archaeological find becomes a source of knowledgeThe Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments (BLfD) has sent a rare artefact from the Middle Bronze Age to Berlin for examination using cutting-edge, non-destructive methods. It is a 3,400-year-old bronze sword, unearthed during archaeological excavations in Nördlingen, Swabia, in 2023. Experts have been able to determine how the hilt and blade are connected, as well as how the rare and well-preserved decorations on the pommel were made. This has provided valuable insight into the craft techniques employed in southern Germany during the Bronze Age. The BLfD used 3D computed tomography and X-ray diffraction to analyse internal stresses at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), as well as X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy at a BESSY II beamline supervised by the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM).
- Element cobalt exhibits surprising propertiesThe element cobalt is considered a typical ferromagnet with no further secrets. However, an international team led by HZB researcher Dr. Jaime Sánchez-Barriga has now uncovered complex topological features in its electronic structure. Spin-resolved measurements of the band structure (spin-ARPES) at BESSY II revealed entangled energy bands that cross each other along extended paths in specific crystallographic directions, even at room temperature. As a result, cobalt can be considered as a highly tunable and unexpectedly rich topological platform, opening new perspectives for exploiting magnetic topological states in future information technologies.
- MXene for energy storage: More versatile than expectedMXene materials are promising candidates for a new energy storage technology. However, the processes by which the charge storage takes place were not yet fully understood. A team at HZB has examined, for the first time, individual MXene flakes to explore these processes in detail. Using the in situ Scanning transmission X-ray microscope 'MYSTIIC' at BESSY II, the scientists mapped the chemical states of Titanium atoms on the MXene flake surfaces. The results revealed two distinct redox reactions, depending on the electrolyte. This lays the groundwork for understanding charge transfer processes at the nanoscale and provides a basis for future research aimed at optimising pseudocapacitive energy storage devices.