Materials and interface design for batteries"
The fast growth of portable power sources for transportation and grid-scale stationary storage presents great opportunities for battery development. How to increase energy density, reduce cost, speed up charging, extend life, enhance safety and recycle are critical challenges. Here I will present more than a decade long research from my lab to address many of these challenges including: 1) Materials design to enable high capacity Si and Li metal anodes and S cathodes. 2) Interfacial design to enhance cycling efficiency of battery electrodes; 3) Battery safety study and strategy; 4) Nanoscale composite solid electrolyte; 5) New battery chemistries for grid scale storage; 6) A breakthrough tool of cryogenic electron microscopy applied to battery materials research, leading to atomic scale resolution of Li metal dendrite and solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) for the first time.
