[CCoE Notice] Seminar: Paths to Better Batteries and Fuel Cells by Learning the Choreographed Dance of their Atoms * 102D, Eng Bldg 1 * 10:30 am, Friday, May 31, 2019 * Faisal Alamgir * Georgia Institute of Technology *

[Knudsen, Rachel W]

***** Seminar *****
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Materials Engineering Program
Center for Integrated Bio and Nano Systems
  May 31, 2019
10:30 a.m., Room: CBB 108
Paths to Better Batteries and Fuel Cells by Learning the Choreographed Dance of their Atoms
Faisal Alamgir
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract: Complementary core-hole based X-ray spectroscopies used under in/ex-situ and operando conditions provide information vital to unraveling the mechanisms of charge transfer and structural re-organization of electro-active materials. In this presentation, we will consider two cases where synchrotron-based core-hole techniques can be used in the study of electrochemically active materials such as in batteries and fuel cells. In the first case we will examine the role of oxygen in the charge compensation of LiMO2 compounds and the consequences of such for battery safety and for unprecedented changes in electrical/magnetic properties. The local electronic and atomic of oxygen was first examined indirectly using hard x-rays by operando resonant K-level measurements of M atoms in battery cathodes of working batteries. The results were then complemented by direct operando measurements at the oxygen K-edge, in order to obtain a detailed roadmap of electrochemical mechanisms in LiMO2 cathodes. Next, we will look at the relationships between the electronic/atomic structure (obtained using complementary core-hole methods) and the electrochemical activity/stability of monolayer Pt catalysts systems. We will focus particularly on Pt films that are one to several multilayers thick (Pt_ML) epitaxially grown on graphene (Pt_ML/GR). These Pt_ML/GR 2D systems have covalent bonds at the interface between Pt_ML and GR and this intimacy between the layers serves to make the GR a ‘chemically transparent’ barrier that allows catalytic chemistry for the canonical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) to take place above it, while protecting the Pt below it from loss. Our demonstration of a room-temperature, fully-wetted synthesis approach, should allow for efficient transfer of charge, strain, and phonons and photons, between atomically thin Pt films and their support, impacting not just the performance of catalysts, but also those of electronic, thermoelectric and optical materials.
Bio: After a BA in physics and mathematics Dr. Faisal M. Alamgir received his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at Lehigh University on the relationship between the bulk glass-forming ability of certain metallic system and their electronic and atomic structure.  He then held a postdoctoral position jointly between Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and Hunter College of the City University of New York where he did research on the development of synchrotron-based in-situ spectroscopies for operando study of secondary battery and fuel cell materials. Prior to joining the Georgia Institute of Technology, he spent one and a half year as a Visiting Scientist for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) where he was one of three scientists in charge of a suite of synchrotron beamlines at BNL.  Dr. Alamgir have been working on in situ/operando methods for unraveling the fundamental mechanisms behind the functioning of Li batteries, fuel cells and other (photo-)electrochemical devices.
Contact Prof. Brankovic <srbranko at Central.UH.EDU> if you would like to meet with Dr. Alamgir.
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