Dongchang Chen
University of New Mexico, NM·Chemistry
Batteries fail or age largely at the boundaries, where the solid electrode meets the electrolyte that carries ions between electrodes. In that thin boundary layer, chemical reactions build up new material whose makeup largely dictates how long a battery lasts, how fast it charges and how safe it is.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
Engineering
- Topics
lithium-ion batteries
sodium-ion batteries
solid-state batteries
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Identify which large oligomer molecules, formed when carbonate ester solvents link together, populate the solid-electrolyte and cathode-electrolyte interphases, using MALDI mass spectrometry on a series of model electrodes.
- Quantify oligomer species by mass spectrometry to track how interphase deposits form and evolve over time, and extend the analysis to realistic batteries to link interphase chemistry to cell-level electrochemical properties.
- Build a coupled micro-spectroscopic platform combining bright-field imaging, micro-Raman mapping, photoluminescence imaging and X-ray tomography to quantitatively survey the lithium metal/halide solid-electrolyte interface.
- Apply machine-learning analysis to separate how individual microstructural and chemical features at the solid-solid interface contribute to the electrochemical behavior of halide-based solid-state batteries.
- Synthesize over-stoichiometric disordered rock salts with cation-to-anion ratios above 1:1, in earth-abundant Li(Na)-Ti-Mn(Fe)-O-F compositions, and characterize their crystallographic properties.
- Probe the energy-storage mechanism of these over-stoichiometric rock salts by measuring electronic and vibrational structure with X-ray spectroscopy, resonance Raman spectroscopy and near-field infrared imaging, and correlate it with cathode performance.
More about the research
Yet this layer is thin, messy and hard to analyze, so its molecular makeup has remained obscure. Work here attacks the problem from two analytical directions, mass spectrometry for the molecules that form at liquid-electrolyte boundaries and coupled light-based microscopy for solid-state batteries, alongside a materials project making new earth-abundant electrode compounds.
Why it matters
Better batteries depend on controlling what happens at electrode surfaces, which is exactly what is hardest to observe. Methods that reveal interphase chemistry molecule by molecule, and that separate the tangled physical and chemical changes in solid-state cells, could guide manufacturing of longer-lasting and safer lithium-ion and solid-state batteries. Cathodes built from earth-abundant titanium, manganese and iron could reduce reliance on scarce metals in lithium- and sodium-ion energy storage.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
CAS: Understanding Molecular Oligomerization in Li-ion Battery Interphases via Mass Spectrometry
NSF · Jul 2026 – Jun 2029
Exploring the Chemistry and Probing the Nature of Over-stoichiometric Earth Abundant Transition Metal-based Disordered Rock Salts
NSF · Jul 2024 – Jun 2027
EPSCoR Research Fellows: NSF: Developing A Coupled Multi-Energy-Scale Spectroscopic and Microscopic Analytical Approach for Halide-based Solid-State Batteries
NSF · Feb 2025 – Jan 2027
Closest labs
Md Mahbubul Islam
Wayne State University, MI·Materials Science·Early-career
Predict how structure relates to catalytic activity for single-atom catalysts on nitride MXenes and transition metal oxides in Mg-CO2 batteries, using density functional theory combined with machine learning.
Steve Martin
Iowa State University, IA·Materials Science
Prepare and characterize new sodium mixed glass former, mixed oxy-sulfide-nitride glassy solid electrolytes that combine silicon and phosphorus with oxygen, sulfur and nitrogen anions.
James Penner-Hahn
University of Michigan, MI·Chemistry
Clarify reaction mechanisms in sulfur composite cathodes that use the garnet solid electrolyte LLZO, using model systems, electroanalytical techniques, and in operando and ex-situ X-ray analyses that track chemistry during and after battery operation.
The school
University of New Mexico: 27 labs on PI Pages, $355M a year on research, 182 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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