Plasma-based accelerators have demonstrated their ability to accelerate electrons at very high gradients (>100GeV/m). They have a number of niche applications. The AWAKE...
Nov15
Reinventing Batteries through Nanotechnology
Yi Cui, Stanford University
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The fast growth of portable power sources for transportation and grid-scale stationary storage presents great opportunities for battery development. The invention of lithium ion batteries has been recognized with Nobel Prize in 2019. How to increase energy density, reduce cost, speed up charging, extend life, enhance safety and reuse/recycle are critical challenges. Here I will present how we utilize nanotechnology to reinvent batteries and address many of challenges by understanding the materials and interfaces through new tools and providing guiding principles for design. The topics to be discussed include: 1) A breakthrough tool of cryogenic electron microscopy, leading to atomic scale resolution of fragile battery materials and interfaces. 2) Materials design to enable high capacity materials: Si and Li metal anodes and S cathodes. 3) Interfacial design with polymer and inorganic coating to enhance cycling efficiency of battery electrodes. 4) Materials design for safety enhancement. 6) Lithium extraction from sea water and for battery recycling. 7) New battery chemistry for grid scale storage.
About Yi Cui
At Stanford University, Yi Cui is the director of the Precourt Institute for Energy, co-director of the StorageX Initiative, and professor of materials science and engineering, as well as professor of photon science at Stanford’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1998 from the University of Science & Technology of China and his PhD in chemistry from Harvard University in 2002. Cui was a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 2002 to 2005 before joining the Stanford faculty. He has founded four companies to commercialize technologies from his lab: Amprius Inc., 4C Air Inc., EEnotech Inc. and EnerVenue Inc.
A preeminent researcher of nanotechnologies for better batteries and other sustainability technologies, Cui has published more than 500 studies and is one of the world’s most cited scientists. He is an fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Materials Research Society, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is an executive editor of Nano Letters and co-director of the Battery500 Consortium.
Cui’s honors include the Global Energy Prize (2021), Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award (2021), Materials Research Society Medal (2020) and Blavatnik National Laureate (2017)
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