Probing the Inside of Batteries: From Fundamental Understanding to Device Performance

Abstract: 

Batteries are an essential part of modern life, powering applications ranging from portable electronics to electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage. The rapidly growing global demand for electrification is driving the need for batteries with higher performance, improved safety, and lower cost. Battery performance is largely governed by a complex interplay of desirable and undesirable reactions occurring within the cell, many of which are difficult to detect and fully understand. 

This talk will highlight recent efforts to probe the morphological, gaseous, and mass-transfer phenomena associated with these reactions in batteries. By unraveling the underlying mechanisms, we aim to identify strategies to mitigate degradation, suppress failure pathways, and ultimately improve device-level performance. The talk will also discuss key challenges related to instrumentation and in situ/operando characterization techniques for batteries. It will conclude with an overview of the capabilities and long-term vision of the UBC Battery Innovation Centre. 

Speaker:

Jian Liu is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan campus, Canada. Dr. Liu received his Ph.D. in Materials Science (2013) from the University of Western Ontario (Canada) and worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory before joining UBC in January 2017. His research interests focus on advanced nanofabrication techniques, materials design for Li-ion batteries and beyond, and interfacial control and understanding in energy storage and conversion systems.