Photo: Chemmat’s PhD candidate, Syeda Wishal Bokhari

U21’s Graduate Collaborative Research Awards (GCRA) are designed to be flexible and encourage doctoral candidates, with the support of their supervisors/advisors, to think innovatively about how their research could benefit from engagement with other members of the U21 network.

Syeda Wishal Bokhari, a PhD student in Prof Wei Gao’s group, won the 2020 U21 GCRA in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, Australia and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, P R China. The project entitled as “High performance electrodes for wearable energy storage devices” aims to solve the challenges of low energy densities of micro/supercapacitors (M/SCs) by using identical cathode and anode materials. The focus will be on the development of carbonaceous electrodes which will possess a high electrochemically active surface area as well as a hierarchical porous structure providing facilitative channels for electrolyte contact and charge transport.

It is expected that the designed SCs system will give a high capacitance and energy power densities in a safe and reliable cost-effective package. This project is also expected to develop the collaborative research area on “sustainable electrochemical energy storage system” between the participating groups in the three partner universities.