Summary
Maria Crespo is a visiting researcher at Imperial College and, since December 2022, a Lecturer in Green Energy at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) in the School of Materials Science and Engineering (SEMS).
Maria obtained her PhD in Spain (Madrid), studying nanocarbons and their nanocomposites for electromagnetic interference shielding (EMI). During this time, she worked in close collaboration with Prof. Mauricio Terrones (Pennsylvania State University) on the synthesis of 3D carbon nanomaterials and mesoscale architectures. Maria moved to the UK with a Marie Curie Individual Research Fellowship, to study photo-responsive graphene/elastomer nanocomposites in QMUL for her first postdoc. After this, her focus shifted towards an application-oriented field: energy storage. She did a short postdoc on vanadium redox-flow batteries and then moved to Imperial College London to develop multifunctional sustainable materials with a special focus on waste-derived anodes for sodium-ion batteries.
Maria is currently interested on producing materials from low-cost waste feedstocks, maintaining a circular economy mindset. In energy storage, she wants to advance the field of Na-ion and dual-ion batteries utilising materials based on earth-abundant elements and to understand the fundamental mechanisms governing the formation of the solid electrolyte interface (SEI).
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Herou S, Ribadeneyra MC, Schlee P, et al., 2021, The impact of having an oxygen-rich microporous surface in carbon electrodes for high-power aqueous supercapacitors, Journal of Energy Chemistry, Vol:53, ISSN:2095-4956, Pages:36-48
Au H, Alptekin H, Jensen ACS, et al., 2020, A revised mechanistic model for sodium insertion in hard carbons, Energy & Environmental Science, Vol:13, ISSN:1754-5692, Pages:3469-3479
Herou S, Crespo M, Titirici M, 2020, Investigating the effects of activating agent morphology on the porosity and related capacitance of nanoporous carbons, Crystengcomm, Vol:22, Pages:1560-1567
Ribadeneyra MC, Grogan L, Au H, et al., 2020, Lignin-derived electrospun freestanding carbons as alternative electrodes for redox flow batteries, Carbon, Vol:157, ISSN:0008-6223, Pages:847-856
Crespo M, Santagiuliana G, Picot O, et al., 2019, A Photoaddressable Liquid Crystalline Phase Transition in Graphene Oxide Nanocomposites, Advanced Functional Materials, Vol:29, ISSN:1616-301X
Herou S, Ribadeneyra MC, Madhu R, et al., 2019, Ordered mesoporous carbons from lignin: a new class of biobased electrodes for supercapacitors, Green Chemistry, Vol:21, ISSN:1463-9262, Pages:550-559
Santagiuliana G, Picot OT, Crespo M, et al., 2018, Breaking the Nanoparticle Loading-Dispersion Dichotomy in Polymer Nanocomposites with the Art of Croissant-Making, ACS Nano, Vol:12, ISSN:1936-0851, Pages:9040-9050
Li Y, Zhang H, Crespo M, et al., 2016, In Situ Exfoliation of Graphene in Epoxy Resins: A Facile Strategy to Efficient and Large Scale Graphene Nanocomposites, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol:8, ISSN:1944-8244, Pages:24112-24122