Public Research Seminar by Sustainable Energy and Environment Thrust, HKUST(GZ) - Calcium Rechargeable Batteries
The growing demand for electric vehicles and stationary energy storage systems calls for developing next generation batteries that combine high energy, high power and low cost. Among many post lithium-ion batteries, calcium rechargeable batteries utilizing divalent Ca2+ ion charge carriers are expected to offer clear benefits in affordability and potentially high energy density, due to the abundance of calcium in the Earth’s crust (46,600 ppm versus 20 ppm for lithium) and the low redox potential of Ca/Ca2+ (-2.9 V vs. standard hydrogen electrode). However, the lack of suitable electrodes is the Achille’s heal of the calcium rechargeable battery technology. The relatively large ionic radius and divalent nature of Ca ions make the insertion kinetics generally sluggish in intercalation hosts. Moreover, a large Ca2+ intercalation is supposed to cause extended volume changes, triggering a premature degradation of electrode structures. In this talk, I would like to present our recent work in exploring conventional or established electrode materials as high-performance calcium battery electrodes through new electrochemical reactions and discuss on the outlook of non-aqueous calcium rechargeable batteries.
Dr. Zhenglong XU is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Dr. Xu received his BSc degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Zhejiang University and PhD degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Before joining ISE at PolyU, he worked as Postdoc/Research Fellow at HKUST, PolyU and Seoul National University. His research interest mainly lies in the design, fabricate and characterization of advanced energy materials and devices, such as rechargeable batteries. He has also established multimodal in-situ characterizations, including in-situ TEM and operando synchrotron X-ray, to probe into the fundamentals in energy storage/conversion systems.
For inquiries, please contact Miss Suggi WU (+86-20-88332966, suggilswu@hkust-gz.edu.cn)