Chemistry of defective materials for decarbonization

The availability of low-cost but intermittent renewable electricity, like that derived from solar and wind, leads  to both challenges and opportunities. On one hand, the difficulty of storing electricity limits the  penetration of renewable electricity in  both the transportation and stationary sectors. On the other hand, electricity is  becoming a vital energy carrier in chemical transformations and enables the efficient production of chemical feedstocks. Contrary to expectation, defective materials are key to addressing these challenges and opportunities given that materials with very few defects do not function well in lithium-ion batteries and  electrochemical cells.

In this talk, Will Chueh explains the solid-state chemistry of defective solids, showcasing how these materials enable the development of lithium-ion batteries with higher-energy densities and feedstock-generating CO2 electrolysis cells.

This talk was presented on March 19, 2019 as part of the IHS Markit Seminar Series.

About the speaker:

Will Chueh is an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and a Center Fellow of the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University. He leads a group of more than thirty researchers tackling the challenge of decarbonizing various energy transformation pathways. He received his BS in applied physics, and his MS and PhD in materials science from Caltech. Prior to joining Stanford in 2012, he was a Distinguished Truman Fellow at Sandia National Laboratories. Chueh has received numerous honors, including the MRS Outstanding Young Investigator Award (2018), Volkswagen/BASF Science Award Electrochemistry (2016), Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2016), Sloan Research Fellowship (2016), NSF CAREER Award (2015), Solid State Ionics Young Scientist Award (2013), Caltech Demetriades-Tsafka-Kokkalis Prize in Energy (2012), and the American Ceramics Society Diamond Award (2008). In 2012, he was named as one of the “Top 35 Innovators Under the Age of 35” by MIT’s Technology Review.

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