2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Symposium
2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Symposium
Scalable Synthesis of SiS2 for Next-Generation Batteries
Scalable Synthesis of SiS2 for Next-Generation Batteries
PROJECT NUMBER: 5 | AUTHOR: Jerry Birnbaum​, Chemical and Biological Engineering
MENTOR: Colin Wolden, Chemical and Biological Engineering
ABSTRACT
The production of high performance batteries is key in the wide spread adoption of renewable energy and electric vehicles. One promising high performance battery technology are solid state batteries. SiS2 is a key material for father research into solid state batteries, but current synthesis routes are inefficient and expensive. In this presentation SiS2 is produced using a metathesis reaction starting with Na2S. First, Na2S is produced, then reacted with LiCl to produce Li2S. The Li2S is then reacted with SiCl4 to produce SiS2. This novel synthesis route promises to be cheaper and more scalable than current production routes.
PRESENTATION
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Jerry is a senior majoring in Chemical and Biological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. He is currently researching the scalable production of next-generation battery technologies and hopes to continue to develop process for the synthesis of SiS2 until he graduates. When he is not working on research or school, Jerry likes lifting weights and going stargazing.
Great presentation and super exciting research!
I appreciate the use of the cursor when going over the XRD spectra. It would have been helpful to use the cursor through the entirety of the presentation, as it was a bit hard to try to follow a lot of the background and procedures. This is the unfortunate drawback of virtual presentations.
The XRD intensity spectra look very noisy, is this of concern? And are there any plans for how to get better resolution? Similarly, the peaks in the FTIR spectra, are those supposed to look more pronounced? If so, how are some ways you might achieve that?
The XRD spectra was done on an older machine which has more noise. To get a better spectra a longer dwell time could be used or a better machine. The XRD peaks are also quite weak which increases the amount of apparent noise. I am not sure what causes the FTIR peaks to not be pronounced, but that is definitely something worth looking into.