Seeing is believing – how x-ray probes can help us understand solid state batteries

New and re-imagined energy materials play a critical role in decarbonizing a range of industries related to transportation, chemical fuels, separations, power production and beyond. Transportation accounts for approximately 23% of energy related carbon dioxide emissions and electrification approaches are widespread for personal vehicles. Batteries currently play an outstanding role in a range of applications including electric vehicles and portable electronic applications and there is a growing interests in expanding the frontier for batteries. Applications such as electric aviation, batteries in space applications, and undersea propulsion all present unique engineering and scientific challenges for electrochemical energy storage systems. In this talk I will discuss emerging battery systems which move ions (e.g. charge carrier) in a solid rather than a liquid. I will also discuss the materials and chemo-mechanical principles which impact ion transport and electron transfer reactions in this class of material systems. Understanding how to engineer materials for coordinated and/or concerted transport is critical achieving reversible operation of these materials and devices. Using real- and reciprocal-space techniques I will show how we can measure and visualize material utilization and reaction heterogeneity in solid state batteries in space and time. The talk will conclude by exploring emerging applications for energy and climate materials through highlighting some of our team’s emerging directions that focus on batteries for space applications and novel moisture-swing direct air capture processes. Dr. Hatzell is an assistant professor at Princeton university in the department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, At Princeton University, Dr. Hatzell leads the Materials for Energy and Climate Lab (HatzellLab.Princeton.edu). The group primarily works on energy storage, energy conversion, and separations applications and is particularly interested at using non-equilibrium x-ray techniques to probe materials during in situ and operando operating conditions. .Dr. Hatzell earned her Ph.D. in Material Science and Engineering at Drexel University, a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, and a B.S./B.A. in Engineering and Economics from Swarthmore College. Hatzell is the recipient of several awards including the ORAU Powe Junior Faculty Award (2017), NSF CAREER Award (2019), ECS Toyota Young Investigator Award (2019), finalist for the BASF/Volkswagen Science in Electrochemistry Award (2019), the Nelson “Buck” Robinson award from MRS (2019), Sloan Fellowship in Chemistry (2020), and POLiS Award of Excellence for Female Researchers (2021), NASA Early Career Award (2022), the ONR Young investigator award (2023), and Alfred Rheinstein Award (2023).