Project Description

Lithium ion batteries (LIB) are one of the most promising energy storage devices that finds critical applications in electrical vehicles, personal and portable electronics, and power systems, because of their high operation voltage, high power and energy densities, and stable cycling performance. To address such urgent needs, cathode materials developments and its fundamental understanding have been the primary focus. Much efforts have been devoted to nanocomposite cathodes either by hybriding two or more cathode materials to combine the advantages of each cathode materials or by nanocompositing non-active materials in cathode materials for enhanced electrical charge transport or prevented SEI (solid-electrolyte interphase) layer growth. Most of the cathodes have been processed by conventional solid state reaction and sintering processes, which have limitations on high sintering temperatures, uncontrolled microstructures, and interdiffusion of the composites. A recent development of field assisted sintering processes have enabled ceramic sintering under much lower sintering temperature, shorter sintering time and well controlled microstructures compared to conventional ceramic sintering process. The project focuses on the development of nanocomposite cathode materials processed by the state-of-the-art field sintering processes to achieve controlled microstructures with ultimate Li-ion transport channels and thus achieve the long term and reliable battery performance.

Start Date

Jan 2020

Postdoc Qualifications 

Promising candidates shall have Ph.D. in materials science and chemical engineering with solid research background in ceramic sintering (especially spark plasma sintering, flash sintering, and/or laser sintering), battery materials processing, materials characterizations and battery characterizations.

Co-advisors 

Haiyan Wang
hwang00@purdue.edu

Vilas G. Pol
vpol@purdue.edu

References 

Zhimin Qi, Jie Jian, Jijie Huang, Jialiang Tang, Han Wang, Vilas G. Pol, Haiyan Wang LiNi0.5Mn0.3Co0.2O2/Au nanocomposite thin film cathode with enhanced electrochemical properties, Nanoenergy, 46, 290-296, 2018. doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2018.02.011. 

Clement Jacob, J. Jian, H. Wang, A Flexible Process to Study a Wide Range of Non-Stoichiometric Effects on the Electrochemical Behavior of Li2MnO3 for Li-ion battery, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. , 7, 2433–2438, 2015, DOI: 10.1021/am5071305. 

Clement Jacob, Tommy Lynch, Aiping Chen, Jie Jian, Haiyan Wang, Highly Textured Li(Ni0.5Mn0.3Co0.2)O2 Thin Films on Stainless Steel as Cathode for Lithium-Ion Battery, Journal of Power Sources, 241, 410-414, 2013. 

Clement Jacob, Jie Jian and Haiyan Wang, A new approach to investigate mixed phase cathode materials, by Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2, 2283-2289, 2014. DOI: 10.1039/c3ta14413e.