Solid-State Electrolytes to Enable Li Metal Batteries
Postdoc: Shaofei Wang
Novel materials and membrane architectures are rationally designed to enable good electrochemical stability, low interfacial resistance, high flexibility, and scalable, low-cost production of solid-state electrolytes. These solid electrolyte membranes can block deleterious diffusion of soluble components in lithium ion cells and also enable highly efficient utilization of lithium anodes to deliver high energy densities.
Polymer Electrolytes for High Voltage Cathodes
Graduate Students: ZhuoLi, YinengZhao
The development of high voltage, high capacity cathodes is needed to dramatically increase the energy densities of lithium ion batteries. With these increasing cell potentials, oxidatively stable electrolytes must be employed. This is a challenge for conventional solid polymer electrolytes based on ethylene oxide functional groups, which have oxidative stability limits of about 4V. Solid polymer and gel electrolyte with high oxidative stability are being developed in our group.
Thin Film Coatings on Solid Electrolytes
Student: Marina Ioanniti
Li ion intercalation materials in thin film morphologies are potential protective coatings for solid-state lithium conductors. These films will protect the underlying solid from exposure to aqueous environments and inhibit potential surface reactions, while still enabling facile Li ion transport.
Cationic Chemical Vapor Deposition
Students: Dominic Giambra, Yifan Gao
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of polymers is an attractive process for synthesizing polymer thin films for use in optical, semiconductor, and research industries. Cationic chemical vapor deposition is a novel initiation scheme for polymer CVD developed by the Tenhaeff group that uses strong acids rather than radical species to initiate heterogeneous polymerization. The cationic process provides fast deposition rates, while eliminating thermal energy requirements.
Flexible Optical Coatings by Polymer CVD
Students: NI Huo
Polymer chemical vapor deposition can readily synthesize polymer thin films with specific optical properties. The main goal of the project is to characterize the synthesis-structure-property relationships of polymer CVD films designed for specific optical applications, and develop customized instrumentation and testing protocols to characterize the optical properties of the films under applied strain.