Seminars

This talk focuses on the interplay of mechanics with chemical reactions in that electrochemistry induces deformation, stresses, damage, and performance degradation of battery materials, likewise, mechanics regulates charge transfer, mass diffusion, interfacial reactions, and capacity and voltage. I will use the customized operando nanoindentation to demonstrate the continuous measurement of the mechanical properties and stability of electrodes during the exercise of charging and discharging. The mechanics experiment further informs the thermodynamics and kinetics of Li reactions which explains the debated fictious phase transition in amorphous Si. I will introduce the use of synchrotron analysis to examine the heterogeneous chemistry and heterogeneous mechanical damage in commercial composite electrodes. Computational modeling integrating mechanics failure and electrochemical metrics is developed in our group to model the battery cells and to quantify the relationship between mechanical damage and battery performance in terms of voltage, capacity, and cyclic efficiency.