Recent News

  • August 13, 2019 - Congratulations to Adrienne Allison for winning a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship.  This award is well-deserved!

  • June 19, 2019 - Paper just published - Emily Traver, Jamie E. Stark, Gianna Aleman Milán, and Heather A. Andreas, "Using pH Indicator To Demonstrate Supercapacitor Reactions" Journal of Chemical Education, 2019, 96, 1778−1781.
    • In this work we incorporate a color indicator as indirect evidence for the manganese oxide’s pseudocapacitive reaction (MnO2 + H+ + e− ⇌ MnOOH) for our 2nd-year Undergraduate supercapacitor lab. Using the evidence of pH changes (the methyl red goes from light yellow to red during an oxidative potential hold), students can make the link between oxidation state changes and the applied potential of the electrochemical experiment. We optimize the indicator concentration and electrochemical parameters to ensure the color changes are evident. Optimal responses arise when 15 μM methyl red is coupled with a 2 min, 0.8 V potentiostatic hold.
 
  • April 25, 2019 - Paper just published - A. Allison and H. A. Andreas, “Minimizing the Nyquist-plot semi-circle of pseudocapacitive manganese oxides through modification of the oxide-substrate interface resistance”, Journal of Power Sources, 2019, 426, 93–96.
    • Often, though not universally, the Nyquist plots of pseudocapacitive materials evidence a semi-circular feature, which is typically attributed to the pseudocapacitive reaction's charge-transfer resistance. However, we show, for the first time, that the origin of the semi-circle is in fact the oxide-substrate interface resistance. The interface is varied through heat treatment of the manganese oxide and by electrodepositing the manganese oxide on different metals. Additionally, our novel manganese oxide double-deposition – in which a thin layer of manganese oxide on the interface is heat treated but the bulk of the film is hydrous – separates the interface and pseudocapacitive responses. Films with a low interface resistance (e.g., with a heat-treated interface or deposited on Pt) evidence a 98% smaller semi-circle than those with a poor interface (films deposited on stainless steel with no heat treatment). Conversely, there is no correlation between the amount of psuedocapacitance and semi-circle size. Thus, the Nyquist semi-circle is associated with the interface resistance, and proper modification of this interface can reduce the performance limitations associated with this resistance.
   
  • September 25, 2018 - AWARDED - The Andreas lab is pleased to announce a successful NSERC ENGAGE grant with Elcora Advanced Materials (elcoracorp.com).
    • The research will focus on translating Elcora’s high-quality graphene into an electrode material for supercapacitors. The Andreas lab will evaluate Elcora’s graphene as a supercapacitor electrode material and provide Elcora with a deeper understanding of their material and its performance. Using Elcora’s high-quality graphene will allow Andreas to expand the fundamental knowledge of the links between carbon characteristics and energy storage.
   
  • June 08, 2018 - Congratulations to Alex Hare  for winning 2nd-place prize for Physical, Computational and Theoretical Chemistry poster at the Science Atlantic Chemistry Conference (ChemCon), Halifax.
 
  • June 06, 2018 - Congratulations to Mallory Davis for successfully defending her MSc Thesis "Improving Electrochemical Capacitor Performance through Studies of Manganese Oxide Hydration and Reduced Graphene Oxide Self-discharge"
   
  • May 28, 2018 - Congratulations to Adrienne Allison for winning 2nd-place prize for Graduate Poster in Surface Science at the 101st Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, Edmonton.
 
  • May 26, 2018 - Congratulations to Adrienne Allison for winning 1st-place prize for Poster Presentation at the Spring Meeting of the Canadian Section of the Electrochemical Society, Edmonton.