(7fm) Stable Electrochemical Growth in Viscoelastic Electrolyte

Research Interests: Electrodeposition is used in various manufacturing processes for creating metal, colloid, and polymer coatings on conductive substrates. The process also plays an important role in electrochemical storage technologies based on rechargeable batteries, where it must be carefully managed to facilitate stable and safe operations at low operating temperatures, high rates, and over many cycles of charge and discharge. A successful electrodeposition processes requires fast transport of charged species (e.g. ions, particles, & polymers) and stable redox reactions at liquid-solid interfaces. In almost all used liquid electrolytes, deposition is subject to a variety of hydrodynamic and morphological instabilities that lead to complex transport phenomena in the electrolyte and unstable deposition, including formation of ramified structures known as dendrites on the substrate/electrode. This talk considers the stability of electrodeposition of reactive metals on planar electrodes with an emphasis on its role in enabling next-generation batteries in which metallic lithium or sodium serves as the electrode. Such batteries have been argued to offer step-change improvements in electrochemical storage technology over today’s state-of-the art lithium ion batteries and are under active investigation worldwide for high-energy, portable energy storage solutions in multiple fields. Beginning with analyses of ion transport processes and stability of electrodeposition in a structured electrolyte, the talk will discuss the fundamental fluid properties such as viscosity, elasticity, electro-convection etc. of the electrolytes that affect the stability of deposition and electrode-electrolyte interphases for stabilizing deposition of reactive metals. The talk will also discuss contemporary efforts to evaluate these approaches using electrochemical and visualization studies.

Teaching Interests: Mass Transport, Physics