Seminar: Electrical Energy Storage: Materials Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

Rapid increases in global energy use and growing environmental concerns have prompted the development of clean, sustainable, alternative energy technologies. Electrical energy storage (EES) is critical to efficiently utilize electricity produced from intermittent, renewable sources like solar and wind as well as to electrify the transportation sector. Rechargeable batteries are prime candidates for EES, but widespread adoption requires optimization of cost, cycle life, safety, energy density, power density, and environmental impact, all of which are directly linked to materials challenges. After providing a brief account of the current status of battery technologies, this presentation will focus on the development of new materials, cell chemistry, and cell configurations to overcome current problems. Specifically, the challenges and approaches of transitioning from the current insertion-compound electrodes in lithium-ion batteries to new conversion-reaction electrodes with multi-electron transfer per atom to increase the energy density and lower the cost with earth-abundant elements will be presented. The systems include sodium-ion cells, lithium-sulfur cells, sodium-sulfur cells, and hybrid metal-air cells. The importance of solid electrolytes to overcome some of the persistent problems in the field and to develop new battery chemistries will be presented.

About the Speaker

Arumugam Manthiram is currently the Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering and Director of the Texas Materials Institute and the Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Program at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin). He received his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology at Madras in 1981. After working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and at UT-Austin, he became a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UT-Austin in 1991. Dr. Manthiram’s research is focused on clean energy technologies: rechargeable batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors, and solar cells. He has authored ~ 550 journal articles with 18,000 citations and an h-index of 70. He is the Regional (USA) Editor of Solid State Ionics. He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, the Electrochemical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the World Academy of Materials and Manufacturing Engineering. He received the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award (university-wide single award per year) in 2012, Battery Division Research Award from the Electrochemical Society in 2014, and Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 2015.

Hosted by Vishnu Baba Sundaresan.