Professor Dr Stefano Passerini

Research Priorities: Electrochemistry, materials chemistry, electrochemical energy storage, photovoltaics

Stefano Passerini is an Italian chemist. He researches electrochemical energy storage devices made from sustainable materials. He became known for his work on ionic liquids, which he was one of the first to use as non-flammable electrolytes for batteries. His focus is on developing resource-efficient and safe energy storage devices that do not require critical raw materials.

One of Stefano Passerini's main areas of research is sodium-ion batteries. These are considered an alternative to lithium-ion systems because sodium is available worldwide and sodium-ion-batteries avoid the use of scarce raw materials such as cobalt. He is investigating how materials and electrolytes can be combined in such a way that these batteries achieve high energy densities and are also inexpensive to manufacture.

With his team, he is designing new electrode materials and electrolytes for this purpose and is implementing them in prototypes. On the cathode side, he is working with transition metal-based layer oxides, among other things. For the anode, he is using hard carbons from biomass, among other materials. Furthermore, he is investigating fundamental processes of ion movement in these materials. He uses the results to make both sodium-ion and lithium-ion systems safer, more durable and more environmentally friendly.

Additionally, he is proposing alternative approaches for large-scale energy storage to match with renewable energy sources. Among these activities, the focus is on aluminum-based cycles, both thermal and electrochemical, and Na-seawater batteries.