Project Info
Electric-field assisted manufacturing of structured electrodes for advanced lithium-ion batteries
Ning Wu
ningwu@mines.edu
Project Goals and Description:
As the desire for clean energy increases, the lithium-ion battery faces two main challenges: high energy density and fast charging. One promising solution to these two challenges is to make thick and lower tortuosity electrodes, allowing lithium ions to transport more efficiently inside the electrode. Currently, scientists have proposed a few methods, including freeze-tape casting, laser ablation, and magnetic templating. However, they are either difficult to implement on larger scales or costly. Since all kinds of materials, regardless of whether they are conducting or not, are responsive to electric fields, we propose to develop a scalable process that utilizes electric fields to make structured electrodes. Under external electric fields, active materials in the battery can be aligned into linear structures, enhancing the battery performance. More importantly, the electric field can be conveniently combined with the roll-to-roll manufacturing processes. Therefore, developing a system that allows the electric field to assist lithium-ion battery electrode manufacturing is important.
More Information:
Grand Challenge: Not applicable.
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2018, 10, 18, 15691–15696
Scientific Report 2018, 8, 1846
Primary Contacts:
Ning Wu, ningwu@mines.edu
Xingrui Zhu, xzhu1@mines.edu
Student Preparation
Qualifications
No specific qualifications are needed. Love to do hands-on experiments is appreciated. Everything can be learned from scratch.
TIME COMMITMENT (HRS/WK)
6-10
SKILLS/TECHNIQUES GAINED
particle synthesis skills
physics and chemistry knowledge of nano-scale material science
programming skills in numerical calculations
software development for quantitative image analysis
presentation skills
writing skills
MENTORING PLAN
The graduate mentor will meet the student formally every two/three days per week to discuss the progress, assign short-term research tasks, and teach specific skills needed. The student will be expected to join the weekly group meeting of our research group. The undergraduate researcher, graduate mentor, and I will meet once a week to discuss the research progress.
PREFERRED STUDENT STATUS
Sophomore
Junior
Senior