Webinar

Watch on-demand: Advanced Characterization Methods of Electrochemical Materials and Interphases for Better Batteries

Lithium (Li) metal has been considered an ideal anode for high-energy rechargeable Li batteries, while Li nucleation and growth at the nanoscale remain mysterious as to achieving reversible stripping and deposition. A few decades of research have been dedicated to this topic, with breakthroughs in novel electrolytes in the last few years, where the efficiency of lithium deposition is exceeding 99.5%.

Here, cryogenic-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM/cryo-FIB) was used to reveal the evolving nanostructure of Li deposits at various transient states in the nucleation and growth process, in which a disorder-order phase transition was observed as a function of current density and deposition time. More importantly, the complementary technique of titration gas chromatography (TGC) reveals important insights about the phase fraction of solid electrolyte interphases (SEI) and electrochemical deposited Li (EDLi). While cryo-EM has made significant contributions to enabling lithium metal anodes for batteries, its applications in the area of solid state electrolytes and thick sulfur cathodes are still in its infancy; therefore, a few new perspectives about how future new imaging and spectroscopic techniques such as plasma FIB SEM (PFIB) can accelerate the innovation of novel energy storage materials and architectures are needed.

Watch the first of four monthly webinars in our Advanced Characterization Methods for Battery Innovations Webinar Series. Dr. Y. Shirley Meng, Professor, University of California San Diego (UCSD), and Dr. Zhao Liu, Market Development Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific, discuss how advanced characterization methods, such as cryogenic electron microscope techniques (cryo-EM/cryo-FIB) and plasma FIB-SEM, facilitate the understanding of battery materials (thick cathode, Li metal, solid state electrolyte) and interphases for better batteries.

Watch this webinar to learn about:

  • Different battery materials and technology trends
  • Advanced electron microscope characterization methods
  • Advanced diagnostic methods that facilitate battery research
Speakers
Shirley Meng

Shirley Meng
Sustainable Power and Energy Center, Laboratory for Energy Storage & Conversion, University of California San Diego, USA

Dr. Y. Shirley Meng received her Ph.D. in Advance Materials for Micro & Nano Systems from the Singapore-MIT Alliance in 2005, after which she worked as a postdoc research fellow and became a research scientist at MIT. Shirley currently holds the Zable Chair Professor in Energy Technologies and professor in Materials Science & NanoEngineering at University of California San Diego (UCSD). Dr. Meng is the principal investigator of the research group - Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC). She is the inaugural Director of Institute for Materials Design and Discovery (IMDD). Dr. Meng received several prestigious awards, including Faraday’s Medal (2020), International Battery Association Battery Research Award (2019), American Chemical Society ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Young Investigator Award (2018), IUMRS-Singapore Young Scientist Research Award (2017), C.W. Tobias Young Investigator Award of the Electrochemical Society (2016) and NSF CAREER Award (2011). Dr. Meng is elected Fellow of ECS society and elected Fellow of MRS society. She is the author and co-author of more than 245 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters and five issued patents. LESC

Zhao Liu

Zhao Liu
Market Development Manager

Zhao Liu joined Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2019 as the market development manager focuses on energy material applications. Zhao’s interest is to investigate the analytical challenge of battery characterization in battery R&D and manufacturing. Zhao received the PhD degree in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University studying 3D imaging of Li-ion battery for structure-performance analysis.