CBE Seminar Series: Jeffrey Richards

Understanding how suspensions of electrically conductive nanoparticles respond to flow is of fundamental importance to engineering next generation battery technologies. In this talk, I will highlight how rheo-electric measurements, the simultaneous acquisition of electrical properties and rheological data, are essential to discovering the complex interplay between the electron transport and flow-induced dynamics in these suspensions. Using rheo-electric measurements of model silver coated nano- and micro- particles suspended in silicone oils, I will describe our discovery of the contribution of Brownian and shear-driven self-diffusion to the measured conductivity. Armed with this new understanding and advanced colloidal synthesis strategies, I will outline how to improve the performance of flowing electrodes in suspension-based flow batteries and the formulation and processing of battery slurry to make high performance lithium ion battery cathodes.