RII Track-4 NSF: Novel Structure and Properties of Hybrid Electrolytes for Lithium Metal Batteries

High-performance and high-safety lithium-ion batteries are highly demanded to enable the fast development of wearable electronics, electric vehicles, etc. The hybrid electrolytes in battery cells such as lithium metal batteries have been studied recently to have the potential to meet the requirements. However, the extant works still suffer from the trade-off between mechanical strength and ionic conductivity, as well as the fundamental understanding of how those properties influence the performance of the assembled cells.

This NSF EPSCoR RII Track-4:NSF fellowship project will provide an opportunity to collaborate with researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to perform fundamental studies on hybrid electrolytes by integrating experimental and simulative efforts. The long-term collaboration is expected to improve the infrastructure in a sustainable way on the research capacity in the energy storage, high-performance computing, and education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) field.

This project will also encourage underrepresented minorities to pursue science and engineering-related projects based on several programs on campus.

The primary goal of this EPSCoR RII Track-4:NSF fellowship project is to develop a new understanding of the coupling mechanism between the properties of the novel hybrid electrolytes and the electrochemical performance of the Li metal battery by elucidating the process-structure-performance correlation of the hybrid electrolytes quantitatively. By partnering with researchers at Caltech, density functional theory-based first-principles calculations and experimental studies will be integrated to fundamentally investigate the interaction of the components in the hybrid electrolytes as well as the interaction with the lithium salts to understand their effects on the performance of the hybrid electrolytes.

Driven by the simulative studies, advanced manufacturing techniques will be developed to fabricate unique hybrid electrolytes with the nonisotropic and tailored nanostructure. It holds the great potential to break the trade-off between high mechanical properties and high ionic conductivity in hybrid solid electrolytes. That, in turn, will provide effective strategies for the energy storage community to design and fabricate hybrid electrolytes with desired properties for safe and high-performance Li metal batteries.

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.