Special Seminar: Microstructural Design Principles for Achieving Stable Metal Anode Interphases with Liquid and Solid-State Electrolytes

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Meeting ID: 942 1068 9104
Passcode: 648808

Lithium metal battery systems (LMBs) are being sought as an ultimate replacement to lithium ion batteries (LIBs), potentially increasing the cell energy by over fifty percent due to the high capacity and low voltage of the metal anode. Analogous improvement in energy is possible with sodium metal batteries (NMBs) and with potassium metal batteries (KMBs), where existing ion insertion anodes can be replaced by plating/stripping metal. However, in all three cases safety and performance are compromised by an unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) that consumes metal ions and electrolyte, and ultimately leads to dendrites.

This presentation provides a series of case studies derived from the group's LMB, NMB and KMB liquid and solid-state research on the microstructural design principles that provide for long-term cycling and fast-charge stability of metal anodes. The approaches may be categorized as the following:

1. design of plating/stripping supports and templates with tuned geometry and functionality;
2. design of secondary interlayers placed between the metal anode and the separator; and
3. design of multifunctional hybrid separators to replace the conventional polymer separators employed with LIBs.

Hosted by Professor Lee Lynd.

About the Speaker(s)

David Mitlin
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UT Austin

David Mitlin is a Cockrell Endowed Professor at the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to that, he was a professor and General Electric Chair at Clarkson University, and a professor at the University of Alberta in Canada. Mitlin is an ISI highly-cited researcher (top 0.1% by impact in field), having published approximately 175 journal articles on various aspects of energy storage materials, metallurgy and corrosion. He also holds 12 US patents and has presented over 125 invited, keynote and plenary talks at various international conferences. Mitlin is an associate editor for Sustainable Energy and Fuels, a Royal Society of Chemistry Journal focused on renewables. He received a doctorate in materials science from UC Berkeley, an MS from Pennsylvania State University, and a BS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Contact

For more information, contact Ashley Parker at ashley.l.parker@dartmouth.edu.