December 18, 2024 @ 11 AM - 12 PM

Ryan Hall - Room #4003

Free Event - No registration necessary

Coffee & Refreshments will be available

Batteries are among the key energy storage technologies for powering electronics, transportation, and grids. The demand for lighter devices and safer, longer-duration storage continues to fuel the need for battery innovation. This, in turn, necessitates designing new battery materials, understanding how they function and, ultimately, developing scalable processes to manufacture them. However, making battery materials with the required capacity, power, lifespan, and safety for practical use is nontrivial, often due to the limitations in predictive synthesis and processing.

In this seminar, I will overview the research needs and latest developments in battery materials development and engineering. Examples from our latest research will be provided to demonstrate how in situ spectroscopy and metrology can facilitate materials design and the process design, optimization and scale-up for large-scale manufacturing, closing the loop from lab discovery to scalable production. Key highlights include:

• In situ and operando spectroscopy-guided battery materials design [1-4];
• In situ spectroscopy for predictive synthesis/processing of next-generation cathodes [5-7];
• In situ metrology boosted by automated data analysis for real-time process monitoring and control in battery manufacturing [8].

Guest Speaker

Feng Wang, PhD

Senior Materials Scientist, Applied Materials Division, Argonne National Laboratory

Feng Wang is a materials scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, with expertise in transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy for battery research. He is currently part of the process development and scale-up team at the Materials Engineering Research Facility (MERF), where he leads multiple projects advancing battery processing science and technology. Wang holds a PhD in Condensed Matter Physics, with his thesis research focusing on transmission electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy.

Before joining Argonne, he was a staff scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he developed in situ techniques for battery materials design, synthesis, and processing. His current research focuses on process design, optimization, and scale-up for manufacturing next-generation, earth-abundant cathodes for lithium-ion, sodium-ion, and solid-state batteries. By leveraging Argonne's cutting-edge characterization and engineering capabilities, he is now developing new process technologies to transition early-stage lab discoveries to scalable production.

LEARN MORE

1. M Ge, et al., Kinetic limitations in single‐crystal high‐nickel cathodes, Angew. Chem. 60, 17350 (2022).
2. W Zhang, et al., Kinetic pathways of ionic transport in fast-charging lithium titanate, Science 367, 1030 (2020).
3. K Karki, et al., Revisiting Conversion Reaction Mechanisms in Lithium Batteries: Lithiation-Driven Topotactic Transformation in FeF₂, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 140, 17915 (2024).
4. C Cao, et al., Atomic insights into the oxidative degradation mechanisms of sulfide solid electrolytes, Cell Rep. Phys. Sci. 5, 101909 (2024).
5. A Tayal, et al., In Situ Insights into Cathode Calcination for Predictive Synthesis: Kinetic Crystallization of LiNiO₂from Hydroxides, Adv. Mater. 36, 2312027 (2024).
6. K Chen, et al., Cobalt-free composite-structured cathodes with lithium-stoichiometry control for sustainable lithium-ion batteries, Nat. Commun. 15, 430 (2024).
7. F Wang, J Bai, Synthesis and Processing by Design of High‐Nickel Cathode Materials, Batteries & Supercaps 5, e202100174 (2022).
8. R Dongol, et al., In situ Synchrotron X‐ray Metrology Boosted by Automated Data Analysis for Real‐time Monitoring of Cathode Calcination, Small Methods (early view).