AMR News
Dr. Dee Strand from The Dow Chemical Company Core R&D will discuss, "Cathode Materials for Lithium Ion Batteries," at 1 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 20 in Dow 107 as part of the Frontiers in Advanced Materials seminar series.
Abstract: Intense research and development is occurring in lithium ion battery materials to enable their use in electrification of the automobile. While the performance of the battery in a vehicle is a function of many variables, the cathode material can have a dramatic effect on the energy density, power density, and safety of the cell. This presentation will review the current options for cathode materials in lithium ion batteries and their relative merits. In addition, trends in cathode material development research and development will be discussed.
Biography: Dee Strand is currently a Scientist at Dow Chemical leading materials research for lithium ion batteries in Core R&D. Dee joined Dow after receiving a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in analytical chemistry. Dee's career has spanned many Dow projects including electronic materials, polymers, sensors/diagnostics, and lithium ion batteries. She has been involved in early efforts to start several new businesses at Dow.
Boris Kozinsky, from the Research and Technology Center, Robert Bosch LLC, Cambridge, MA, will discuss "Computational design of materials for next generation lithium ion batteries" at 1 p.m. on Friday, October 30 in Dow 107 as part of the Frontiers in Advanced Materials seminar series.
Abstract: Large scale utilization of intermittent renewable energy sources and mass commercialization of electric vehicles both require significantly advanced battery technology that concomitantly possesses several important features: high energy density, safety, and long cycle life. These properties depend primarily on the materials comprising the components of the battery. Therefore, improving materials is the key to advancing this energy storage technology. Batteries operate due to a number of complex oxidation-reduction electron-transfer reactions that take place on the atomic level between different material components. Lithium insertion during intercalation and extraction from solid-state electrode is a process that is very sensitive to the composition and individual atomic environment in the material, and is governed by the energetics of electron transfer, configurational entropy, diffusion activation barriers and a variety of other microscopic effects. It is, therefore, important to include atomic-level simulation in the design of active materials. I will describe the materials issues we are currently facing on our way to next-generation Li-ion batteries and our efforts to understand and solve them using atomistic computational techniques.
Dr. Veronica Barone's and Dr. Juan Peralta's respective articles on graphene have been recognized as part of a core group of publications, presented in a Research Front map on ScienceWatch. This map diagrams highly cited papers on the topic of graphene, identifying citations and co-citations among the publications. Research front maps, including Dr. Barone’s and Dr. Peralta’s contributions, can be found online at Sciencewatch: http://sciencewatch.com/dr/rfm/.
Abstract: Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries were first commercialized by Sony in early 90's. The high cost of cobalt and relatively low specific capacity of LiCoO2 (140mAh/g) have been major obstacles against the application of these batteries in transportation where the battery energy density should significantly increase to meet the goals for plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), and essentially for electric vehicles (EVs). Also, despite the abundance of iron and manganese, olivine LiFePO4 and spinel LiMn2O4 will not likely be adequate candidates since neither of them could provide enough gravimetric and volumetric energy densities for transportation applications. Therefore, research groups have been under the challenge of inventing and developing new advanced positive electrode materials whose main characteristics is to store more and more electricity per mass and volume. Of these materials, the Argonne advanced composite materials, recently licensed by several companies, were found to deliver a high reversible capacity (250mAh/g) while being structurally and electrochemically stable upon charge and discharge. These thermally stable materials are considered as potential candidates to surmount the energy density shortfall of current lithium ion batteries. The journey for materials design and discovery will be approached and discussed in the light of the most recent developments in lithium-ion batteries.
Dr. Valeri Petkov will participate in workshops on X-Ray scattering methods and Pair Distribution Function at upcoming conference.
Abstract: Economical and practical considerations for new technologies result in an increase of demand for electrical power sources with higher energy and power densities than those currently available. As a result, crucial material challenges arise, and material non-idealities, conceived chemistries, and inherent ohmic losses have motivated the development of new scientific methodologies and out-of-the box engineering approaches to create advanced power sources. The present paper presents a theoretical and numerical framework that spatially resolves the thermodynamic and kinetic properties of the constituent materials of rechargeable lithium ion batteries microstructures. For traditional topologies, bottleneck microstructural mechanisms and limiting rates are identified. Improved traditional and three-dimensional architectures are proposed, and the location of undesirable microstructural features are identified for both real and computer-generated electrode architectures.
Dr. Yi Ding from the US Army RDECOM-TARDEC/TPS Energy Storage Team will present "A Brief Introduction to Lithium Ion Batteries and Supercapacitors" at 1 p.m. in Dow 107 as part of the Frontiers in Advanced Materials Seminar series.
Abstract: Rechargeable Lithium ion batteries and supercapacitors are key components of the EV/HEV of auto industry. They are also used in portable, entertainment, computing and telecommunication equipment required by today's information-rich, green-oriented, mobile society. This presentation will discuss the status of lithium ion batteries and supercapacitors briefly. Lithium ion battery safety will also be discussed.
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