As a first-year PhD student, I have joined the Cao group in the MSE department. Our group works on different energy storage materials for solar cells, supercapacitors, and batteries. In particular, I will study vanadium oxides as a prospective class of cathode materials for Li-ion batteries. These are interesting materials because their theoretical capacity is more than twice that of today’s cathodes. We have evidence that modifying the degree of crystallinity can improve Li capacity, and that doping the structure with different metals (e.g. Fe, Ni, Co) can augment the voltage and electrochemical properties of the electrode. However, the underlying reasons for these observations have not been elucidated. I intend to thoroughly characterize and optimize these materials. In addition, I will focus on industrially scalable processing techniques to reduce time to market. We are optimistic about commercializing in the near term, after addressing the few remaining scientific and technical issues.
Advisor: Guozhong Cao, Materials Science and Engineering