September 29, 2022
@
4:00 PM
–
5:00 PM
Dr. Yi Cui
Stanford University
Host: Dr. Fang Liu (MS&E)
Reinventing Batteries through Nanoscience
Abstract
The fast growth of power sources for transportation and grid-scale stationary storage presents great opportunities for new battery chemistries. How to increase energy density, reduce cost, speed up charging, extend life, enhance safety and reuse/recycle are critical challenges. Here I will present how we utilize nanoscience to reinvent batteries and address many of challenges by understanding the materials and interfaces through new tools and providing design principles of new materials. The topics to be discussed include: 1) A breakthrough tool of cryogenic electron microscopy, leading to atomic scale resolution of fragile battery materials and interfaces. 2) Materials design to enable high capacity materials: Si and Li metal anodes and S cathodes. 3) Interfacial design with polymer and inorganic coating to enhance cycling efficiency of battery electrodes. 4) New electrolyte design. 5) New battery chemistry for grid scale storage.
Biography
At Stanford University, Yi Cui is the director of the Precourt Institute for Energy, co-director of the StorageX Initiative, Fortinet Founders Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering and Department of Energy Science and Engineering in the new Doerr School of Sustainability. As a cleantech pioneer and entrepreneur, Cui earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1998 from the University of Science & Technology of China and his PhD in chemistry from Harvard University in 2002. He was a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 2002 to 2005 before joining the Stanford faculty. He has founded six companies to commercialize the energy and environment technologies from his lab: Amprius, 4C Air, EEnotech, EnerVenue, LifeLab Design, EnnoPure Inc. Cui has published more than 500 studies and is one of the world’s most cited scientists. He is an elected member of National Academy of Sciences and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Materials Research Society, the Electrochemical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is an executive editor of Nano Letters and co-director of the Battery 500 Consortium, co-director of Bay Area Photovoltaic Consortium. His selected awards include Global Energy Prize (2021), DoE Lawrence Award (2021), Materials Research Society Medal (2020), Electro Chemical Society Battery Technology Award (2019), Nano Today Award (2019), Blavatnik National Laureate (2017), and the Sloan Research Fellowship (2010).