Detail:
Abstract: Zinc-based batteries have found applications in devices ranging from hearing aid to grid-scale batteries, due to their superior safety and low cost compared to Li-ion counterpart. Albeit the high energy density, zinc-based batteries, particularly zinc anodes, have poor rechargeability. Since the launch of my lab at Georgia Tech in January 2017, we have focused on developing tools to uncover the important information about battery materials, as well as engineering battery materials at the nanoscale to solve their intrinsic problems. In this talk, I will present our recent progress in designing nanostructured materials to mitigate the reversibility problem of zinc anodes. In addition, I will show our in-operando visualization of liquid product formation and dynamics in Zn-Br battery cathodes.
Biography: Nian Liu is an Assistant Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (since Jan. 2017). He received his B.S. in 2009 from Fudan University (China), and Ph.D. in 2014 from Stanford University, where he worked with Prof. Yi Cui on the structure design for Si anodes for high-energy Li-ion batteries. In 2014-2016, he worked with Prof. Steven Chu at Stanford University as a postdoc, where he developed in situ optical microscopy to probe beam-sensitive battery reactions. Dr. Liu’s new lab at Georgia Tech focuses on materials and device engineering for rechargeable high-energy batteries for versatile applications, and understanding their fundamental science using in operando microscopy.
