Feifei Shi
Pennsylvania State University, PA·Chemistry·Early-career
Lithium-ion batteries power phones, electric cars and grid storage, but progress is slowed by gaps in basic battery science. One gap is the electrical double layer (EDL), a thin layer of charges and molecules that forms where an electrode meets the liquid electrolyte.
- Fields
Chemistry
Engineering
Materials Science
- Topics
lithium-ion batteries
electrical double layer
battery electrolytes
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2028
What they work on
- Characterize electrical double layer properties in lithium-ion battery electrolytes by electrocapillarity on a static mercury electrode, measuring interfacial free energy, ion surface excess and potential of zero charge.
- Resolve the molecular structure of the double layer in concentrated and nonaqueous electrolytes using varied-angle ATR-FTIR, an infrared technique sensitive to molecules at a surface.
- Connect measured double-layer properties, such as surface charge density and capacitance, to the electrochemical behavior and performance of battery electrolytes.
More about the research
This layer controls how electrons cross the boundary, how ions move, and how solvent molecules stick to or leave the surface. As a result, it affects battery lifetime, power, capacity and safety. Yet little is known about the EDL in real battery electrolytes.
Why it matters
Knowing how the electrode–electrolyte boundary is structured could guide the design of electrolytes and electrode surface treatments for safer, longer-lasting and more powerful batteries. This could help electric vehicles, consumer electronics and grid energy storage. The measurement approach may also apply to battery chemistries beyond lithium-ion.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Tod Pascal
University of California-San Diego, CA·Chemistry·Early-career
Develop an interface-sensitive fluctuating charge model, in which atomic charges adjust to their surroundings, so that lithium in metallic, semi-metallic and ionic states can be simulated together in one simulation cell.
Laisuo Su
University of Texas at Dallas, TX·Materials Science
Determine how the chemistry and concentration of non-reactive crowding agents and zinc salts modulate the Zn2+ solvation shell, ion pairing, and ion transport in bulk aqueous electrolytes.
Anh Ngo
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Materials Science
Characterize the solvation structure of liquid battery electrolytes, meaning how molecules arrange around each ion, across many compositions and concentrations using high-throughput multimodal measurements.
The school
Pennsylvania State University: 60 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 743 research doctorates a year.
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