Energy materials
1. Development and Application of New Electrochemical Energy Storage for Green Grid
Large-scale energy storage have attracted more and more attentions due to the increasing deployment of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. However, current well-developed battery technology can’t meet the durability, high power and energy efficiency, and cost requirements for widespread application in the grid. Liquid metal battery (LMB), can be severed as a grid scale electrochemical energy storage device with long cycle life and low cost. We are interesting in the fundamental research on the development of new electrodes and electrolyte for LMB to obtain the higher energy power, longer cycle life and lower cost. Moreover, we are also focus on designing the new structure for LMB, optimizing the operation parameters and lowering the cost of cell fabrication.
Representative publications
1) Xiaohui Ning, Satyajit Phadke, Brice Chung, Huayi Yin, Paul Burke, Donald Sadoway, A self-healing liquid metal battery with high rate and long life for grid-scale energy storage, Journal of Power Sources, 2015, 275, 370－377
2) Takanari Ouchi, Hojong Kim, Xiaohui Ning, Donald Sadoway, Calcium-antimony alloys as electrodes for liquid metal battery, Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2014, 161, A1898-A1904
3) Paul Burke, Brice Chung, Satyajit Phadke, Xiaohui Ning, Donald Sadoway, Self-Healing Liquid/Solid State Battery, Nov. 2013, US patent，61/896,777
4) 宁晓辉，杨烈，代涛，单智伟，一类用于液固金属电池的正极材料，申请号：201410347518.2
5) 宁晓辉，代涛，杨烈，单智伟，一种液态金属电池装置及其装配方法，申请号：201410350077.1
6) 宁晓辉，代涛，杨烈，单智伟，一种方形液态金属电池装置及其装配方法，申请号：201410349894.5
2. Advanced Electrode materials for Lithium-ion Batteries and Sodium-ion Batteries
The lithium-ion batteries have significantly changes in people’s modern life. We can communicate with others by using cell phones and work by using laptop anywhere. However, the recent developments of smart phones and tablet computers request more operating cycles with thinner and lighter LIBs of higher energy. We are aiming at designing and synthesizing novel negative and positive electrode materials with higher capacity, longer cycle life and larger rate capability for lithium-ion battery and sodium-ion batteries. Moreover, we are also very interesting in the in-situ TEM observation of the electrochemical reaction of nano-materials in battery.
Nuclear Energy Materials
Nuclear energy is very promising for solving the global energy crisis due to its high energy density and less adverse effects on the environment. However, in order to keep the safety of nuclear reactors, we need to design advanced structural materials which can be used in an extreme working conditions including high pressure, high radiation, high temperature and high corrosive environment. Based on the current cutting-edge in situ nanomechanical testing and environmental TEM techniques, we intend to unveil the fundament mechanisms of interactions between radiation defects and plasticity, radiation assisted stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen and helium embrittlement in metals and alloys, thus we can design special microstructures to mitigate damages under nuclear reactor environment.
References:
W.Z. Han,N.A.Mara, Y.Q. Wang, A. Misra, M.J. Demkowicz. He implantation of bulk Cu-Nb nanocomposites fabricated by accumulated roll bonding. Journal of Nuclear Materials 452 (2014) 57.
W.Z. Han, M.J. Demkowicz, N.A. Mara, E.G. Fu, S. Sinha, A.D. Rollett, Y.D. Wang, J.S. Carpenter, I.J. Beyerlein, A. Misra. Design of irradiation tolerant materials via interface engineering. Advanced Materials 25 (2013) 6975.
W.Z. Han, E.G. Fu, M.J. Demkowicz, Y.Q. Wang, A. Misra. Irradiation damage of single crystal, coarse-grained, and nanograined copper under helium bombardment at 450C. Journal of Material Research 28 (2013) 2763. (Invited feature paper+Journal cover).
W.Z. Han, M.J. Demkowicz, E.G. Fu, Y.Q. Wang, A. Misra. Effect of grain boundary characters on sink efficiency. Acta Materialia 60 (2012) 6341.
