MateriAlZ Seminar: Nella Vargas-Barbosa
Friday, March 17, 2023 - 11:00 a.m. MST
Nella Vargas-Barbosa
Young Investigator Group Leader
Forschungszentrum Jülich – Helmholtz-Institut Münster
"Exploring the Viability of Hybrid Material Concepts for Sulfide-based Electrolyte Solid-State Batteries"
Zoom link; Password: 10810
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Abstract
The renewed interest in further developing solid-state batteries (SSBs) is mostly due to the high room temperature conductivities (> 1 mS/cm) of sulfide-based solid electrolytes. However, such materials tend to have limited (electro)chemical stabilities against state-of-the-art oxide-based cathode materials and Li metal, both of which are likely necessary for the implementation of SSBs in electromobility applications. In this talk, we discuss how the combination of sulfide-based solid electrolytes with other materials can be exploited to tackle some of these electro-chemo-mechanical challenges. We present various classes of hybrid materials, namely solid electrolyte-liquid electrolyte; solid electrolyte-polymer electrolyte and solid electrolyte-conducting polymers: how they are prepared, characterized electrochemically, and incorporated in solid state battery half-cells. Our approach is strongly focused on attaining a good understanding of the transport bottlenecks in these hybrid materials, in terms of both ionic and electronic transport, as well as interfacial (in)stabilities and monitoring the formation of new interphases. Therefore, a combination of various electrochemical methods beyond galvanostatic cycling is presented, namely electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The talk concludes with a brief overview of potential future directions in this field.
Bio
Dr. Nella M. Vargas-Barbosa was born and raised in the Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico, where she grew up and completed her bachelor’s in chemistry at the Rio Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. After completing her Ph.D. in chemistry at Penn State University, she moved to pursue an academic career in Germany that includes stays at the University of Marburg and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research. Nella is now an independent Young Investigator Group Leader at the Helmholtz Institute Münster. There she leads the iPEC lab (interfacial PhotoElectroChemistry lab), which focuses on studying photoelectrochemical systems that have applications for energy generation and energy storage. The goals of the group range from elucidating the fundamentals of charge-transport at heterogeneous interfaces in model systems to more application-oriented projects characterizing solid-solid interfaces and interphases in solid-state batteries.