This project has successfully developed various electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries and sodium-ion batteries, such as novel polyoxometalates, high-entropy ceramics, Prussian blue analogs, 2D materials, and agricultural-waste- derived porous carbon materials, etc. They all exhibit excellent capacity, fast charge and discharge performance, and long cycle life. In addition, the in-situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometer and penetrating X-ray microscope in National Synchrotron Radiation Center are used to study the energy storage mechanism of those electrode materials during charging and discharging processes. Among them, waste-coffee-ground-derived porous carbon anode material provided high cycle stability and excellent rate performance. In addition to the advantages of low cost and reduced environmental pollution, its good battery performance can be applied to the large-scale energy storage market.

This project also utilizes porous carbon materials derived from waste coffee grounds and water chestnut shells as anode materials for MFCs and PMFCs. This agricultural-waste-derived carbon materials exhibit good conductivity, porosity and biocompatibility, which enables facile biofilm formation on the surface, effectively reduces the electron transfer resistance, and increases the power density. In addition, those MFCs and PMFCs exhibit long-term stability. The above results show that the application of carbon materials derived from agricultural wastes to MFCs and PMFCs has the advantages of high power and low cost.