All News
🎉 Nice to see our work featured on the Cover of EES Batteries.
With a little delay — congratulations to Tom on successfully defending his PhD and becoming PhD graduate #12 from my group! 🎓
A strong and productive thesis on new classes of highly charged anionic organic materials for batteries, combining deep fundamental studies with valuable mechanistic insights.
Congrats Tom, and best wishes for the next steps in your career! 🚀
November 2025. Géraldine successfully defends another awesomely productive PhD and becomes Doctor #11 from the group. Congrats Géraldine and good luck in your future career!
Honoured to see our group mentioned in the Chemistry World opinion piece “Building better batteries with chemistry’s toolbox.” 🙏
Huge thanks to NRJ team — postdocs, doctoral researchers, master & visiting students, and our administrative/technical staff — your ambition and hard work make challenging projects possible.
🎉 Nice to see our work featured as a Back Cover in Energy & Environmental Science.
🔗 http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=D5EE02567B
🙌 While Mg-ion and Ca-ion containing high voltage cathodes was widely considered very challenging — some saying even impossible — we realized it through careful host design, electrolyte engineering, and chemical intuition.
🏁 The race is on now:
• Who can deliver even better cathodes?
• Who will develop truly high-voltage electrolytes for divalent-metal batteries?
We’re excited to see (and help drive) what comes next. 🚀
Is the “Graphite: the new critical mineral.” ?
In collaboration with Prof. P. M. Ajayan (Rice University), we examine graphite’s central role in Li-ion anodes and outline routes to a sustainable supply—greener synthesis from renewable/waste carbon, efficient recycling of spent anodes, and supportive policy/market frameworks.
Proud of this Rice–UCLouvain partnership.
Read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-025-00848-5
Many updates just added across our Publications page — new papers, perspectives, and cover features.
Check the latest here: https://vladgroup.org/publications/ — and stay tuned, more coming soon!
New paper in Energy & Environmental Science! We unveil a high-capacity organic cathode storing 4 electrons per molecule with Li⁺, Na⁺, and K⁺ — reaching up to 900 Wh/kg. A step forward for sustainable battery materials
Excited to share our latest paper in Chem on mixed proton–electron conducting materials!
💡 We report a new class of 3D breathable metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that combine proton transport via free phosphonic acid groups with electron conduction through redox-active Fe(III) centers. Structural “breathing” driven by water channels further enhances conductivity, and reversible redox activity is enabled by uncoordinated hydroquinone units. A promising platform for next-generation electrochemical systems. Read more here.
Excited to share our latest paper in ACS Applied Energy Materials on calcium-ion batteries! 💡 We investigate layered iron sulfates as potential Ca-ion cathodes and uncover key electrochemical artefacts that could mislead performance claims — a reminder that making a true Ca-ion cathode remains a real challenge.
March 2025. Da successfully defends his awesomely productive PhD and becomes Doctor #10 from the group. Congrats Da and good luck in your future career!
Excited to share our latest paper in Nature Communications on rechargeable lithium batteries! 🚀 We discuss a novel electrolyte based on dimethyl 2,5-dioxahexanedioate solvent, addressing stability challenges in 5 V positive electrodes. The result? Dendrite-free lithium plating-stripping, high anodic stability up to 5.2 V, and outstanding performance after 250 cycles.
September 2023. Lisa successfully defends his awesomely productive PhD and becomes Doctor #9 from the group. Congrats Lisa and good luck in your future career!
September 2023. Xiaolong successfully defends his awesomely productive PhD and becomes Doctor #8 from the group. Congrats Xiaolong and good luck in your future career!
July 2023. Hewei successfully defends his awesomely productive PhD and becomes Doctor #7 from the group. Congrats Hewei and good luck in your future career!
Our apologies for being silent over the past year, lot of activities, and we lost track of time. Many things have happened, a bunch of top publications out (check the respective page), and many more to come. See next the major outcomes of the group in 2023, and stay tuned for upcoming ones ...
Seasonal Greetings from NRJ group !!!
Compliments of the Season and best wishes - with great science results and many excellent papers - for the Next Year 2023 !
Congratulations Jérôme for the FRIA PhD fellowship! Great time and science ahead!
Congratulations Rambabu for the Best Poster Award at OBD2022 ! Another proof of excellent science we are doing!
Congratulations to Xiaodong for being awarded the prestigious Marie Curie IF fellowship to continue his research journey in my lab !
Coordination polymers made to conduct and store charge! Check out our latest publication in Energy & Environmental Science on how coordination chemistry pushes the boundaries of organic batteries with high voltage organic cathodes being developed for Li, Na, and K-ion storage.
Congratulations Jiande & NRJ team!
Check out our latest review on anode-free batteries published in Oxford Open Materials Science. Although the anode-free battery design theoretically provides higher stack energy density than a Li-ion battery, current developments are still underoptimized, as the state-of-art anode-free batteries can barely hold several dozens cycles.
Congratulations Shubhadeep & NRJ team!
Congratulations to Robert M, Dr. Rambabu D & Dr. Xiaodong L for being awarded prestigious FNRS fellowship to continue their research journey in my lab !
Xiaozhe successfully defends his awesomely productive PhD and becomes Doctor #6 from the group. Congrats Xiaozhe and good luck in your future career!
Shine and charge ! Curious to know what may contain the photo-rechargeable batteries of the future!? Check out our latest publication in Chemistry - A European Journal!
Congratulations Deepak & NRJ Team !
Proud of Dr. Jiande WANG, who won the IMCN PhD Thesis Award 2021 !!! Another proof of excellent research he (and we) do !!!
Congratulations to Géraldine on the Best IMCN Poster Award 2022! A sign of excellent work she is doing !
Curious to know more about the impact of dual-salt electrolytes on Li-metal batteries? Then check out our recent publication in Journal of Power Sources!
Congratulations Xiaozhe and NRJ Team!
The curious case of Na-Fe-PO4-F phases for excellent Na-ion storage published in Advanced Science!
Congratulations Xuelian and NRJ team!
Excellent collaborative work on the effect of Iodine doping on soft carbon for lithium-sulfur batteries published in Batteries & Supercaps. Congratulations Yan and NRJ team!
Inspiring work on an intriguing Na0.6Fe1.2PO4 phase for high performance Na-ion storage published in Batteries & Supercaps. Congratulations Xuelian and NRJ team!
Congratulations Géraldine and Tom for the Best Oral & Best Virtual Poster Awards at European Young Chemists Meeting 2022 !
Excellent work on high voltage organic framework for high performance Na- and K-ion batteries published in ACS Energy Letters. Congratulations Jiande and NRJ team!
Congratulations Géraldine for the FRIA PhD fellowship! Great time and science ahead!
Xuelian successfully defends her awesomely productive PhD and becomes Doctor #5 from the group. Congrats Xuelian and good luck at Tufts University!
Jiande successfully defends his awesomely productive PhD and becomes Doctor #4 from the group. Congrats JD and good luck at MIT!
A new class of electrically conducting Li-ion redox MOFs published in JACS. Congratulations Rambabu and NRJ team.
A comprehensive overview of organic anode materials published in Advanced Energy Materials! Congratulations Alaeddine and NRJ team!
Qi (Zhu) successfully defends his awesomely productive PhD and becomes Doctor #3 from the group. Congrats Qi and good luck in your future career!
A new class of organic battery materials reported in Nature Materials! Congratulations Jiande and NRJ team!
Rico successfully defends his awesomely productive PhD and becomes Doctor #2 from the group. Congrats Rico and good luck at IMEC (Belgium)!
Excited to share our thoughts on a new breakthrough in Mg-organic batteries, as a News&Views highlight in Nature Energy!
Louis successfully defends his awesomely productive PhD and is officially Doctor #1 from the group. Congrats Louis and good luck PSI (Switzerland)!