Issue 11 – December 21, 2021

CINE NEWS

CINE´s headquarters was inaugurated at UNICAMP. Now the Center has a common use environment for administrative activities and the development of collaborations, partnerships and other interactions. The opening event was attended by around 40 people, including authorities from CINE’s leading institutions, Shell executives, and CINE coordinators, researchers and staff.

• Read the news on CINE website.

RESEARCH

CINE researchers and collaborators have developed a scalable method to obtain hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets, a two-dimensional material whose properties are promising for use in the generation and storage of new energies.

• Go to the article in Materials Today Advances.

• Read the news story on CINE website.

REVIEWS

Review article by CINE members discusses advances in the recent development of quase-solid-state electrolytes. These materials have several advantages for application in energy storage devices; for example, greater security for the user and the possibility to assemble flexible and extensible devices. The article reviews the properties and applications of several quase-solid-state electrolytes that have been reported in the scientific literature.

• Go to the article in the Journal of Energy Chemistry.

RESEARCH

Collaboration between a CINE’s computational research group and an experimental group advances the understanding of the performance of nickel and gallium catalysts in the transformation of carbon dioxide into methanol. The study investigates in detail the influence of different materials that can be used as supports for these catalysts and proposes a reaction mechanism for the most promising material. The article was published in a journal with impact factor of 19.503.

• Go to the article in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental.

RESEARCH

CINE researchers and collaborators have developed a method to prepare gas diffusion layers – components that fulfill several essential functions in fuel cells. The layers prepared by this method distribute the fuel (gaseous) more efficiently, improving the performance of the cells both to generate electricity from hydrogen and to transform methane into molecules of greater industrial value.

• Go to the article in Materials Today Advances.

In order to establish a scientific collaboration, representatives of CSEM Brasil, an applied research center based in Belo Horizonte, visited laboratories and met with CINE leaders on November 23 at UNICAMP.

CINE is looking for highly motivated researchers to work in subjects related to electrochemistry, solid oxide devices, heterogeneous catalysis and advanced materials characterization. Applications until December 25th. Know more.

VIII CINE-CMSC Workshop Online Edition

The workshop of CINE’s Computational Materials Science and Chemistry division will be held from February 14 to 18, 2022 via the Zoom platform. The event is open to all public and will address the use of computational methods in the study of processes for converting methane and carbon dioxide into molecules with greater value, photovoltaic materials and materials for energy storage. Machine learning techniques will also be discussed. Applications and submissions are open until January 7, 2022 through this form.

Co-organized by Prof Claudia Longo (UNICAMP), member of CINE’s Dense Energy Carriers division, the workshop brought together, in a hybrid format, 40 participants from different universities in Brazil and the United Kingdom, including early-career researchers, mentors, guest researchers and PhD students. After three days of intense programming, the participants presented their work and discussed possibilities for interaction.

Prof Fabio Fonseca (IPEN), coordinator of the Methane to Products division at CINE, participated in a panel discussion that addressed sustainable mobility in the context of new energies, mainly for commercial vehicles (trucks and buses).

The Education and Dissemination of Knowledge (EDK) team created CINE’s profile on Google Scholar, which aggregates publications generated in the context of CINE by its members and displays some scientific metrics. It is possible to follow the profile to know the Center’s news in terms of publications and citations. See here.

CINE’s podcast is now in its 6th episode. Transformation of carbon dioxide into products, green hydrogen and batteries are some of the topics covered in recent episodes with the participation of CINE researchers. Listen here (in Portuguese).