Invited Paper EM+EN+TF-WeA3
Rational Design of Energy Storage Materials from Earth Abundant Elements

Wednesday, November 12, 2014, 3:00 pm, Room 311

As a part of global scale renewable energy technology solutions, large scale energy storage system (ESS) would be critical in mediating the gaps between cycles of energy demands and intermittent solar and wind energy generations. Furthermore, electric vehicles (EV) require significantly larger energy storage capacity compared to the batteries used electronic device applications. There are significant challenges in extending the current Li ion battery (LIB) technology (based on graphite anode, organic liquid electrolyte, and Co oxide cathode) to EV and ESS applications. Many different approaches are currently investigated to overcome the capacity, safety and cost issues of LIB in EV and ESS applications, and new battery technology researches include Si anode, Na and Mg batteries, metal-air batteries, over-lithiated-oxide (OLO) [1] and silicate cathodes [2] for LIB. OLO and silicate cathode materials provide two times larger charge storage capacity (~300 mAh/g) compare to current commercial LiCoO₂ (LCO) or Li(Ni,Co,Mn)O₂ (NCM) cathodes. Both Li₂MnO₃ and Li₂FeSiO₄ are based on earth abundant transition metals of Mn and Fe so that a successful development of these cathode materials would improve cathode capacity and cost problems. In order to achieve the short term goal of OLO and silicate cathode development and the long term goal of EV and ESS material development, we have applied the rational material design and development framework developed for pollution control technology in which Pt catalysts are replaced by PdAu alloy and Mn-mullite catalysts. [3-5] In this talk, we will discuss the current status of OLO and silicate cathode material research based on the integrated material design-synthesis-characterization framework.

This work was supported by Samsung GRO project.

1. R. C. Longo et al., “Phase stability of Li-Mn-O oxides as cathode materials for Li-ion Batteries: insights from ab initio calculations” (submitted)

2. R. C. Longo, K. Xiong and K. Cho, “Multicomponent Silicate Cathode Materials for Rechargeable Li-ion Batteries: An ab initio study,” Journal of the Electrochemical Society 160, A60 (2013).

3. X. Hao et al., “Experimental and Theoretical Study of CO Oxidation on PdAu Catalysts with NO Pulse Effects,” Top. Catal. 52, 1946 (2009).

4. B. Shan et al., “First-principles-based embedded atom method for PdAu nanoparticles,” Phys. Rev. B 80, 035404 (2009).

5. W. Wang, G. McCool, N. Kapur, G. Yuan, B. Shan, M. Nguyen, U. M. Graham, B. H. Davis, G. Jacobs, K. Cho, X. Hao, “Mixed-Phase Oxide Catalyst Based on Mn-Mullite (Sm, Gd)Mn₂O₅ for NO Oxidation in Diesel Exhaust,” Science 337, 832-835 (2012).