Center for Sustainable Energy Materials (CENSEMAT)

In CENSEMAT, we strive to understand and control structural disorder to exploit it as a new handle for tuning material properties. This will enable us to create novel sustainable energy materials based on abundant resources. Within the center we will focus on materials for three key energy technologies: rechargeable batteries, super capacitors and thermoelectric materials.

Sustainable energy technologies lie at the core of the green transition. Still, the materials that power essential energy technologies are often based on scarce elements, putting the supply of resources at significant risk. This creates an immediate need for new energy materials based on abundant resources. However, this is a major scientific challenge, as changing the chemical composition inherently will change the ability of a material to produce or store energy.

Most energy materials are crystalline, with atoms arranged in an ordered periodic array. Yet, the properties responsible for energy conversion are often linked to non-random local disorder within the crystalline material. Still, the nature and effects of structural disorder have been largely overlooked, and the link between structural disorder in crystalline materials and their properties is perhaps the greatest knowledge gap in materials chemistry today.

Located at the Department of Chemistry at Aarhus University, with additional hubs at Oxford University and the TU Wien, CENSEMAT brings together experts in energy materials, characterization, and synthesis. Through collaboration across experimental and theoretical disciplines, we will uncover new insights into the creation and function of efficient, durable, and sustainable energy materials advancing the green energy transition.