Xavier-UChicago Partnership for Research and Education in Materials for Energy Storage and Sensing

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Non -Technical Summary

Xavier University of Louisiana (Xavier), a primarily undergraduate and historically black university, has a rich history of graduating Black American students who pursue careers in postgraduate education towards careers in healthcare and research-based careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Leveraging this strong reputation for STEM education, this Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) Seed project supports a partnership between the University of Chicago (UChicago) and Xavier which seeks to increase diversity in research-based careers in materials science and engineering through targeted interventions that focus on engaging underrepresented minority students in research early in their undergraduate education.

This partnership also endeavors to increase undergraduate student involvement in cutting-edge energy storage related research in materials science and engineering through strategic collaborations with UChicago faculty. Furthermore, this PREM Seed project is used to inform student recruitment, retention, and degree attainment efforts pursuant to a lasting Xavier-UChicago PREM journey.

Technical Summary

Facilitated by the UChicago MRSEC and the Materials and Interfaces Center for High Energy Storage and Sensing (MICHESS) at Xavier, lab-to-lab partnerships between Xavier and UChicago faculty are intentionally organized around long-term research collaborations within an interdisciplinary research group (IRG) that develops materials for improved energy storage applications. The overall goal of this IRG is to develop materials that support safer lithium batteries with high energy density through an understanding of the underlying interfacial interactions that occur as a result of lithium cation transport at the electrode-electrolyte interface.

The Xavier-UChicago partnership encompasses two thematically related research projects that directly address this overall objective by focusing on (1) developing robust solid electrolytes with high mechanical strength and competitive lithium conductivity and (2) investigating detrimental lithiation mechanisms at electrode surfaces during lithium cation intercalation. These efforts have the potential to lead to meaningful contributions towards understanding the critical interfacial interactions that determine and/or limit the performance of energy storage devices.

Further, this collaborative research endeavor, focused on interactions at material interfaces, also supports significant educational and diversity goals of the Xavier-UChicago partnership. The primary educational effort is to increase access to foundational training in materials science and engineering through mentored research opportunities that recruit talented URM students early in their undergraduate education and retain those students through degree attainment.

Through intentional efforts to broaden the participation of URM students, this partnership supports the PREM pathway by facilitating a pipeline for talented URM students from undergraduate into graduate school and eventually into research-based careers in materials science and engineering.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.