EPSCoR Research Fellows: NSF: Investigating Degradation in Battery Electrodes using Scanning Thermal Probes

The transition to sustainable energy storage is crucial for reducing dependence on fossil fuels and achieving decarbonization goals. Lithium-ion batteries play a pivotal role in this effort, powering a wide range of applications from portable electronics to electric vehicles. The surge in battery demand requires enhancements in energy storage performance and safety features beyond the current capabilities of lithium-ion batteries.

Notably, thermal runaway, a critical safety issue where the battery overheats uncontrollably, has been encountered in several incidents involving mobile phones and electric vehicles. This issue, along with the growing need for higher charging rates and greater energy density, underscores the challenges of battery degradation. This project aims to enhance our understanding of the degradation mechanisms associated with the thermal properties of lithium-ion batteries.

This fellowship will provide the PI with a unique opportunity for training, research, and establishing a sustainable partnership with collaborators at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Advanced local thermal characterizations achieved through this project will provide valuable insights, contributing to the development of higher-capacity, more durable, and safer lithium-ion batteries.

This Research Infrastructure Improvement EPSCoR Research Fellows project will provide a fellowship to an Associate Professor and training for a graduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Extensive research into lithium-ion batteries has been conducted to enhance battery performance, such as specific energy, power, and cycle life. However, local thermal properties, which critically influence electrochemical reactions and battery integrity, have received considerably less attention.

This fellowship project will enable local thermal property measurement of battery electrodes using custom-designed scanning thermal probes. These probes will be manufactured at Marvell Nanofabrication Lab at UCB. In addition, through comprehensive assessments of electrochemical behaviors and crystal structures, this project will bridge a critical knowledge gap in degradation mechanisms of lithium-ion batteries by correlating local thermal properties with the physical and chemical processes.

The experience gained through this project will transform the PI’s career by providing formal training on batteries, granting access to the state-of-the-art facilities, and ultimately opening new research directions in batteries. Further, this fellowship will deepen the existing collaboration and initiate new ones with researchers at UCB and LBNL.

Outcomes from this fellowship include generating course materials, joint journal papers, and competitive collaborative proposals.

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.