SEMINAR:Critical Link between Materials- and Cell-Design and...

Speaker: Damla Eroğlu Pala, Boğaziçi University

Title: Critical Link between Materials- and Cell-Design and Lithium-Sulfur Battery Performance

Date/Time:  Nov 22,  2023, 13:40-14:30

Place: FENS G035

Abstract: Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have attracted significant research interest in the last couple of decades due to their significantly high theoretical specific capacity and the fact that the cathode active material sulfur is abundant and inexpensive and has a high capacity. However, several mechanisms hinder the Li-S battery performance: the depletion of the lithium metal or the electrolyte in the cell with cycling, the polysulfide shuttle mechanism due to the transport of the soluble reaction intermediates between the cathode and the anode, and the passivation of the cathode surface due to the precipitation of the insoluble product Li2S are some examples of these mechanisms that lead to fast capacity fade and thus limited cycle life of the Li-S batteries. As a result of the highly complicated reaction and degradation mechanisms in the cell, the performance of the Li-S battery significantly depends on the materials and cell design. Mathematical modeling coupled with electrochemical characterization is essential to better understand this critical link between the key materials and cell design parameters -electrolyte-to-sulfur (E/S) ratio, carbon-to-sulfur (C/S) ratio, sulfur loading, and carbon and electrolyte properties- and the Li-S battery performance. In our research group, we couple electrochemical characterization (i.e., electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, galvanostatic cycling) and modeling (i.e., electrochemical modeling, cell- and system-level performance modeling, machine learning) to investigate this critical link between materials and cell design and Li-S battery performance.proposed iterative and reinforcement-learning solutions compared to other solutions and illustrate the impact of multi-band communications on improving the system energy efficiency .   

Bio:Dr. Eroğlu Pala gained her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Middle East Technical University. During her MSc studies, she received the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award and Prof. Dr. Hasan Orbey Graduate Student Award. Following these, she earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University, USA. During her Ph.D., she gained expertise in electrochemical characterization and modeling in complex electrochemical systems such as rechargeable batteries and electrodeposition of metal/ceramic particle composites. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division at Argonne National Laboratory, USA, as a part of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research. Her work there focused on techno-economic modeling and materials-to-system analysis of beyond lithium-ion batteries for transportation applications. She has been a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Bogazici University since 2017. In 2022, she received the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award in Physical Sciences and the METU Prof. Dr. Mustafa N. Parlar Foundation Research Incentive Award. Her research group, named “Electrochemical Engineering Research Laboratory” at Bogazici University, conducts both experimental and theoretical research on electrochemical systems such as lithium-sulfur batteries.