Porous and Nanostructured Materials for Energy Storage, Transformation and lontronics
Stefan Kaskel
Abstract
Stefan Kaskel studied chemistry at Eberhard Karls University, Tubingen (Germany), and received his Ph.D. degree in 1997. As a Feodor-Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation he worked with J. Corbett at Ames Laboratory, USA (1998-2000) on intermetallic compounds. He was a group leader at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr (2000-2004) in the group of F.Schüth and after his habilitation at Ruhr University (Bochum) in 2004 in the area of heterogeneous catalysis, he became full professor for Inorganic Chemistry at Technical University Dresden. Since 2008 he is also business field leader at Fraunhofer IWS, Dresden (part time).
His research interests are focused on porous and nanostructured materials (synthesis, structure, function) for applications in energy storage, catalysis, batteries and separation technologies. His major activity at Fraunhofer IWS is the development of lithium sulfur batteries. He received the nanotechnology award of the German Ministry of Science and College of Education in 2002, the JSPS award from Japan in 2016, and the Joseph Von Fraunhofer Award in 2025. Stefan Kaskel has authored more than 700 publications (h-index 134) and Science has contributed as inventor to more than 60 patent applications. He was recognized multiple times as Highly Cited Researcher of woeld's most influential scientific minds by Clarivate Analytics. He is a fellow of European Academy of Sciences.
Speaker's Introduction
Porous materials play essential roles in gas capture (e.g., CO2), air filtration, catalysis, and energy technologies. This presentation highlights recent advances in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and nanostructured carbons developed for these applications. MOFs from the Dresden series (DUT-n) exhibit ultrahigh surface areas (up to 7800 m /g) and show unique phenomena such as negative gas adsorption (NGA), making them promising for gas storage and separation. Such materials also serve as hosts for ions and redox-active molecules in energy storage systems. For instance, hierarchical porous carbons with high conductivity and robustness are ideal for supercapacitors, batteries, and electrocatalysis. In lithium-sulfur batteries, high-pore-volume carbons enable high sulfur loading and energy densities exceeding 400 Wh/kg. Supercapacitors facilitate rapid energy recovery and novel iontronic applications, including electrically controlled bio-ion release.
In summary, the presentation provides insights into tailor made porous materials and highlight their functionality with respect to gas storage, separation, ion storage, and applications in batteries.
