ITS Professor Unveils Advanced Material Innovations for Energy Storage and Environmental Technology

Guru Besar ke-245 Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) Prof Diah Susanti has pioneered advanced materials for energy storage technology and environmental pollution control to address the energy crisis while supporting environmental sustainability. “Using photocatalytic technology with semiconductor materials such as reduced Graphene Oxide and copper oxide (rGO/CuO) composites, CO2 exhaust gas can be converted into alternative fuels like methanol and methane,” Diah stated in Surabaya, East Java, on Friday. In her scientific oration titled ‘Advanced Material Engineering for Energy Storage Technology and Environmental Pollution Control’, the lecturer from ITS’s Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering stressed the importance of the energy transition to curb greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel use. Beyond converting carbon emissions, the photocatalytic technology she developed is also used to break down toxic industrial dye waste, such as Rhodamine-B (RhB) and Methylene Blue (MB). According to Diah, a composite material based on reduced Graphene Oxide and zinc oxide (rGO/ZnO) developed by the Material Chemistry Laboratory at ITS is capable of degrading liquid RhB pollutants by up to 99.5 percent in just five hours. In the field of energy storage, Diah has also developed electrochemical supercapacitors as energy storage devices that combine the advantages of conventional capacitors and batteries. This technology possesses high power density, enabling it to overcome the energy density limitations of conventional power storage systems. “Its capacitance can even reach 10,000 times greater than ordinary conventional capacitors,” she said. She explained that supercapacitors are classified into three main types: Electric Double Layer Capacitors (EDLC), pseudocapacitors, and hybrid systems. Her research has successfully developed all three types using rGO material combined with various metal oxides, such as WO3, NiO, CuCr2O4, and manganese oxide compounds. The technology is designed to be integrated with batteries or fuel cells in electric vehicles to accelerate the charging and discharging process while maintaining power supply stability. Looking ahead, Diah hopes the nanotechnology innovations can be applied on an industrial scale through collaboration with various global partners to support Indonesia’s Net Zero Emission (NZE) target by 2060. “As long as there is opportunity, women must also continue to empower themselves and strive to contribute their best research for the preservation of nature,” she said.