Seminars & Speakers

Battery Electrolytes: Linking Molecula-Level Interactions to Alkali Metal(Anode) Plating Efficiency
Speaker Dr. Wesley Henderson
Affiliation U.S. Army Research Laboratory
Date August 24, 2017
Time 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Venue #111-106
Sponsor UNIST-Energy and Chemical Engineering
Host Prof. Sang Young Lee
Contact 052-217-1016
Phone 052-217-3552
Many "beyond Li-ion" battery electrochemical couples rely on the plating and stripping of Li metal as an anode active material (e.g., Li-air, Li-S, Li-metal oxides, etc.). The majority of publications on such batteries focus on the cathode reactions with little attention devoted to the Li anode. In part, this is because poor performance is the norm for Li metal plating/stripping. In recent years, sodium-based batteries have also received considerable attention. Na-ion batteries (with carbon-based anodes), however, may have a cost which approaches that of Li-ion batteries, but with a significantly reduced energy density. To match or exceed the energy density of Li-ion batteries, the use of a Na metal anode is likely required. This anode, however, has many of the same challenges that plague Li metal. This presentation will therefore explore how and why such poor alkali metal plating/stripping occurs in standard (dilute) electrolytes and why the use of highly concentrated electrolytes enables the efficient cycling of these highly reactive metal electrodes. To fully understand this, however, requires a rigorous exploration of the molecular-level interactions which occur in electrolytes. The first part of the seminar will therefore focus on presenting an electrolyte characterization methodology that enables a detailed understanding of electrolyte 'liquid structure.'