MateriAlZ Seminar Series: Wolfgang Zeier
Friday, October 8, 2021, 11:00 am MST
Wolfgang Zeier
Professor, University of Münster and Helmholtz-Institute Münster, Germany
"On understanding ionic transport in solids and solid-state batteries"
Zoom link
Passcode: 827540
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Abstract
The advent of solid-state batteries has spawned a recent increase in interest in lithium conducting solid electrolytes, especially in the lithium thiophosphates and halides. However, many open questions remain when trying to optimize electrolytes and understand solid-state battery chemistries. In this presentation, we will show how an understanding of the structure-transport properties can help tailor the ionic conductivity. We show that anion site-disorder and anionic charge inhomogeneities are important and that tailoring disorder leads to improvements of the conductivity. Further, we will show that it is not only important to find fast ionic conductors, but that fast ionic conduction is paramount within solid-state battery composites. Measuring the effective ionic transport in cathode composites provides an avenue to explore transport and stability limitations that in turn provide better criteria for solid-state battery performance.
Bio
Wolfgang Zeier received his doctorate in Inorganic Chemistry in 2013 from the University of Mainz. After postdoctoral stays at the University of Southern California, the California Institute of Technology, and Northwestern University, he was appointed group leader at the University of Giessen, within the framework of an Emmy-Noether research group. Since 2020 he holds a professorship for Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Münster. In addition, he heads a department at the Helmholtz-Institute Münster, Ionics in Energy Storage. His research interests encompass the fundamental structure to property relationships in solids, with a focus on thermoelectric and ion-conducting materials, as well as solid-solid interfacial chemistry for all-solid-state batteries.