Dr. Y. Shirley Meng is a Professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering University of Chicago. She serves as the Chief Scientist of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Meng is the principal investigator of the research group – Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC). She held the Zable Chair Professor in Energy Technologies at University of California San Diego (UCSD) from 2017-2022. Dr. Meng is elected Fellow of Electrochemical Society (FECS), Fellow of Materials Research Society (FMRS) and Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is the author and co-author of more than 280 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters and six issued patents. she is the Editor-in-Chief for Materials Research Society MRS Energy & Sustainability. Dr. Meng received her Ph.D. in Advance Materials for Micro & Nano Systems from the Singapore-MIT Alliance in 2005.
Abstract
High energy long life rechargeable battery is considered as key enabling technology for deep de-carbonization. Energy storage in the electrochemical form is attractive because of its high efficiency and fast response time. Besides the technological importance, electrochemical devices also provide a unique platform for fundamental and applied materials science & research since ion movement is often accompanied by inherent complex phenomena related to phase changes, electronic structure changes and defect generation. In this talk, I will discuss a few new perspectives for energy storage materials including new superionic conductors, new intercalation compounds and their interfacial engineering. With recent advances in photon and electron characterization tools and computational methods, we are able to explore ionic mobility, charge transfer and phase transformations in electrode and electrolyte materials in operando, and map out the structure-properties relations in novel functional metals, ceramics and gaseous materials for next generation energy storage and conversion.