[Crib-list] SPEAKER: MARTIN Z. BAZANT (MIT) : "Computational Research in Boston and Beyond Seminar" (CRIBB) : DATE: Friday, May 3, 2013 : TIME: 12:00 Noon in Bldg. 32, Room 141 (Stata Center)

[Shirley Entzminger]

 		    COMPUTATIONAL RESEARCH in BOSTON and BEYOND SEMINAR


DATE:		FRIDAY, MAY 3, 2013
TIME:		12:00 Noon
LOCATION:	Building 32, Room 141   (Stata Center)

Pizza and beverages will be provided at 11:45 AM outside Room 32-141


TITLE:		Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics of Li-ion Batteries


SPEAKER:	MARTIN Z. BAZANT
 		Departments of Chemical Engineering and Mathematics
 		Massachusetts Institute of Technology


ABSTRACT:

Li-ion batteries involve electrode materials, such as iron phosphate and 
graphite, which tend to separate into Li-rich and Li-poor phases upon 
intercalation of lithium.  In nanoparticles, this bulk thermodynamic 
relaxation competes with surface electrochemistry, leading to the 
fundamental question:  What is the reaction rate during a phase 
transformation?  A consistent answer is provided by a theory of chemical 
thermodynamics that unifies and extends the Cahn-Hilliard and Allen-Cahn 
equations for chemical kinetics and charge transfer.  The reaction rate 
depends on concentration gradients, elastic stress, and other 
non-idealities.  Simulations based on the theory shed light on the complex 
nonlinear dynamics of ion intercalation in battery nanoparticles and 
porous electrodes.  A key prediction is the suppression of phase 
separation at high currents, as reactions stabilize quasi-solid solution 
states far from equilibrium.

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA  02139


For more information, please visit...

 			http://math.mit.edu/crib