Event
MSE Seminar Series: Investigating Solid-Liquid Interfaces and Defect Chemistry in EC Energy Material
Friday, February 5, 2021
1:00 p.m.
via Zoom
Sherri Tatum
statum12@umd.edu
https://mse.umd.edu/seminar-series
Title: Investigating Solid-Liquid Interfaces and Defect Chemistry in Electrochemical Energy Materials
Speaker: Feng Lin, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Tech
Abstract:
Our research focuses on understanding how electrochemical interfaces and defect chemistry govern the nucleation and propagation of redox reactions in solids, with a strong focus on tackling fundamental materials chemistry challenges using advanced synchrotron X-ray analytical techniques. We aim to advance fundamental insights that can broadly and positively impact the development of materials electrochemistry for next-generation energy solutions including batteries, renewable fuels, and smart windows. To date, we have made progress in probing how local chemical and structural heterogeneities, such as grain boundaries, dislocations, point defects, and electrochemical interfaces, govern the redox reactions in redox-active solids. Such progress has allowed us to design and synthesize a vast array of new energy materials for low-cost, sustainable, high-performance electrochemical energy systems. We will start the presentation by providing an overview of our research program. Then we will highlight two coherent topics. First, we will present our study on determining the atomic and molecular origins of surface-mediated electrochemical processes through probing the metal ion speciation and interfacial structural transformations under electrochemical operating conditions. Second, we will report our study on controlling the charge nucleation and propagation in solids by engineering nanoscale defect chemistry. We will show that a precise control of crystallographic defects and their distributions can potentially promote and homogenize redox reactions in battery materials, creating a new path towards developing fast-charging batteries.
