Carbon materials for renewable energy

Professor Ncholu Manyala holds the Research Chair and is also the research leader of the Carbon Based Nano-Materials Research Group at the University of Pretoria. The main focus of Professor Manyala’s group is on the use of carbon nano-materials for renewable energy, in particular the application of graphene-based materials in converting solar energy to electricity, and storing it using graphene-based supercapacitors.

The group works on various forms of carbon materials including two- and three-dimensional, nanostructured electrode materials for the next generation of supercapacitor electrodes. The most commonly used material in the laboratory is graphene, a one atom thick material, with the focus on the chemical vapour deposition growth of the material as well as its characterisation, chemical functionality and applications in areas such as energy storage.

The main engineering technology focus is on supercapacitors; that is, electrochemical energy storage devices with different characteristics to those of conventional batteries. While the energy density of supercapacitors is much smaller than that of batteries, the power density can be orders of magnitude higher because they can be charged and discharged rapidly.