Dr. Tianyu Zhu, Senior Research Engineer at QuantumScape Corp., will give a seminar titled "Functional Polymers for Rechargeable Batteries – Synthesis, Processing and Ionic Transport Behavior" to the interested faculty and students at Discovery Park.

Abstract

Synthetic polymers are ubiquitous for the vast majority of technologies, from packaging to biomedical to energy applications. As a critical component for rechargeable batteries, functional polymers, e.g., polymer electrolytes, electrode binders, and protective coatings, are in great demand to address the challenges in advanced research and manufacturing. The rational design of functional polymers for electrochemical devices largely relies on the fundamental understanding of their physicochemical phenomena and structure-property-activity relationships. Here I present two examples of combining function-driven synthesis together with morphological control to enhance the ionic transport properties of functional polymers for battery applications. First, a class of solid polymer electrolytes containing metallo-cations was designed,1 which can support efficient ionic transport and long lifespan in aqueous batteries benefiting from well-defined morphology superior and high chemical stability.2 Second, a thermal processing approach was demonstrated to form hierarchically ordered structures in multifunctional conductive binders,3 which led to significantly enhanced charge transport properties and mechanical robustness for high-loading silicon-based anodes. Taken together, the fundamental understanding of polymer structures, material processing, morphological evolution and charge property enhancement is all the more exciting to be applied in a broad range of technologies in the emerging electrochemical systems.

Biography

Tianyu Zhu obtained his B.S. from Nanjing University in 2015, and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina in 2019. His graduate research was focused on synthetic polymer electrolytes with different architectures for energy storage and conversion. Tianyu established a synthetic platform on metallo-cations and corresponding polymers with tunable redox properties and chemical stability for hydroxide ion transport. From 2020 to 2022, Tianyu was a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, exploring the design and processing of functional polymers for lithium-ion batteries. During his stay at Berkeley Lab, Tianyu developed synthetic high-temperature binders and investigated mixed ionic-electronic transport mechanisms in thermally processed conductive polymers, to address the challenges in high-loading silicon-based anodes. Currently, Tianyu is a senior research engineer at QuantumScape Corp, developing all-ceramic-based separators for solid-state lithium batteries. Tianyu’s research has been recognized with awards and honors such as Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research Symposium (2020 ACS Philadelphia) and ACS PMSE Future Faculty Scholar (2022 ACS Chicago).