Project Description

Despite significant advancements in Li-on battery (LIB) technology, a significant bottleneck remains. Battery thermal runaway based catastrophe during transportation has to be managed using armor technologies leading to significant compromise on energy density. Emphasis of proposed work is on:

1. Understanding change in electrochemical structure of electrodes in industrial Li-ion coin and pencil cell batteries under in-operando conditions specified in UN 38.3 T3 as well as UN 38.4 T4 standards and relate such changes to battery efficiency change during in-operando conditions using mechanical spectroscopy;
2. Incorporate thermal sensors in the design of such batteries (both external and internal placements will be analyzed) that are able to relay the change in electrode properties and battery efficiency to data gathering modules; and
3. Use of data science and machine learning based on data gathering to predict battery efficiency change and possible onset of thermal runaway conditions and to develop onboard management strategies that allow temporary shutdown of batteries that are at the onset of thermal runaway while allowing the continued operation of safer ones.

Start Date

Jan 2020

Postdoc Qualifications 

Candidates should have earned a doctorate in Physics, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Aerospace Engineering, Materials or Mechanical engineering or a related field. The successful candidate will have experience in performing material characterization and analytical analyses. Experience with high-performance scientific computing is desirable. Candidate should also have a strong publication record, with first-author publications in high impact journals. Good communication skills and ability to work well in a group are desired. 

Co-advising 

Vikas Tomar
tomar@purdue.edu
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Dengfeng Sun
dsun@purdue.edu
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Collaborator  

Vilas Pol
vpol@purdue.edu
Davidson School of Chemical Engineering

References 

United Nations, UN38 Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods- Manual of Tests and Criteria, sixth edition, New York and Geneva, 2015. 

Navy Lithium Battery Safety Program NAVSEA S9310, Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, DC, 2009. 

M. Gan, V. Tomar, An in situ Platform for the Investigation of Raman Shift in Micro-scale Silicon Structures as a Function of Mechanical Stress and Temperature Increase, AIP Review of Scientific Instruments, 2014, 85, 013902. 

D.P. Mohanty, H. Wang, M. Okuniewski, V.Tomar, A nanomechanical Raman spectroscopy based assessment of stress distribution in irradiated and corroded SiC, J. Nuclear Materials, 2017, 497, 128.