About the Speaker:

Dr. Feng Lin is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Tech. Dr. Lin holds a bachelor’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Tianjin University (2009), and a Ph.D. degree in Materials Science from Colorado School of Mines (2012) with joint research at the National Renewable Energy Lab. Prior to joining Virginia Tech in 2016, Dr. Lin worked at QuantumScape Corporation as a senior member, and at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow. His research covers the design and synthesis, processing, characterization, and applications of energy materials in electrochemical systems, including batteries, catalysis, and smart windows. The team has also established an integral analytical program to study materials dynamics under operating conditions using operando synchrotron X-ray and electron analytical techniques. His laboratory has been funded by DOE, NSF, ARPA-E, Air Force, USDA, ACS-PRF, Jeffress, etc. His awards and recognitions include SLAC Spicer Young Investigator, Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, Journal of Materials Chemistry Emerging Investigator, RCSA Scialog Fellow, ACS-PRF Doctoral New Investigator, Energy Storage Materials Young Scientist Award, National Science Foundation CAREER award, John C. Schug Faculty Research Award, and many Scientific Highlights by DOE national laboratories.

About the Seminar:

Title:

Nickel/Cobalt-Free Intercalation Battery Chemistries

Abstract:

Batteries are essential for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. To date, however, most lithium-ion batteries use nickel and cobalt as redox-active elements. With the surge of electric vehicles in recent years, the use of nickel and cobalt raw materials has ramped up and will continue to increase in the future. Nickel and cobalt are not cheap and have caused major supply chain concerns. Reducing or eliminating the use of nickel and cobalt represents a grand challenge in developing low-cost, sustainable, safe, and high-energy batteries. In this presentation, we will first discuss our recent progress in eliminating the use of cobalt in lithium-ion batteries. We investigate the electrochemical properties of cobalt-free layered cathodes in various platforms, from conventional polycrystalline materials to size-tailored single crystals. Then, we will highlight a new class of nickel/cobalt-free cathode materials with dual transition metal redox. Throughout the presentation, we will demonstrate how our battery research has been accelerated by fundamental investigations using synchrotron X-ray analytical techniques.