Speaker: Kejie Zhao, Purdue University
Program Description:
This talk focuses on the interplay of mechanics with chemical reactions in Li-ion batteries. I will introduce the customized operando nanoindentation which probes the continuous evolution of material states/properties during Li reactions. I will use a cathode to elaborate the use of the indentation experiments to measure the mechanical strength of electrodes at different states of charge and over cycles. I will use an anode to elaborate the use of the mechanics experiments to inform the chemistry and kinetics of Li reactions. I will introduce the use of synchrotron analytics to examine the heterogeneous chemistry and heterogeneous mechanical damage in composite electrodes. Computational modeling integrating mechanics failure and electrochemical metrics of batteries is developed to quantify the relationship between mechanical degradation and battery performance in terms of voltage, capacity, and cyclic efficiency.
Biosketch: Dr. Kejie Zhao is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University. He received his Ph.D degree in Engineering Science in 2012 from Harvard, and obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2005 and 2008, respectively. He worked as a postdoctoral associate at MIT in 2012-2014. The research theme of his group focuses on the chemomechanics of energy materials using experimentation and multi-scale modeling approaches. He is also working on organic electrochromics and superelastic organic semiconductors. He is a recipient of the EML Young Investigator Award, 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award, EnSM Young Scientist Award, NSF CAREER Award for his research and multiple teaching awards at Purdue University.
