(4nu) Low Dimensional Green Materials for Energy and Catalysis Applications

Introduction: In the pursuit of a cleaner and more sustainable energy future, it is a pivotal endeavor to design ecofriendly materials that can be employed for energy storage in batteries and supercapacitors and catalysts for converting biomass to value added chemicals and fuels. New research is springing up on the design of low dimensional materials like nanosheets, nanorods, quantum dots from green polymers because these materials possess tunable properties (active sites, surface area, morphology, stability, selectivity, and size), improved transport properties (high carrier mobility, and high sustainability efficiency.

Research Interests:

My interest lies in the design of low dimensional green materials like single-atom TM hybrids, metal-ionic liquid (MIL) frameworks, green carbons, spinel oxides and polymers to achieve high specific capacity, energy density and longer lifespan in batteries and supercapacitors. These low-D green materials will not only be employed for energy storage, but they will also be used for green energy generation by catalyzing transformation reactions of biomass, plastics, and CO₂ to renewable fuels.

Research Experience: I have broad experience with synthesis and mechanistic tuning of materials using green solvents. I also have good experience on catalytic transformations of lignin to fuels. I have 4 years’ experience in electrode and electrolyte preparation, battery and supercapacitor assembling and testing, 2 years’ experience on green catalysis I have more than 7 years’ experience in the synthesis and characterization of polymers, 2D materials and carbon materials with up to 35 SCOPUS indexed peer-reviewed journals. Apart from my extensive laboratory research experience, I have functioned as lab heads for various materials, catalysis and energy labs in Nigeria, South Africa, and USA.

Research skills: Material synthesis, property tuning, catalysis, electrode assembly, bio-oil separations, product funneling, GCMS, XRD, SEM, NMR handling, research proposal writing research paper writing.

Previous specific research: Zinc aqueous batteries, sodium ion batteries, supercapacitors, renewable fuels, catalytic lignin valorization and plastics upcycling.

PhD research:

During my PhD, I designed an amidic cellulose polymer and tuned its properties by creating a pH gradient within its architecture to achieve up to 600 Fg^-1 specific capacitance and 100 Whkg^-1 energy density. In another work, I synthesized various Fe and Ti based TMOs and adjusted their phase composition to generate 4500 Wkg^-1 power density and retention capacity of 99% after 20000 cycles in battery and supercapacitor applications. I had a total of six (6) publications in my PhD.

Postdoctoral research:

Currently, I am employing metal-ionic liquid (MIL) frameworks to catalyze the conversion of lignin and plastics to renewable fuels. The work is centered on mechanistic optimization of the catalytic sites on these catalysts via vacancy engineering and bond tuning. The work has been able to achieve up to 60% bio-oil yield, 20% bio-fuels yield and 55% selectivity to valuable hydrocarbons.