*********** Upcoming Events ***********
As our concept map writing services are often used by newbie writers & busy students, we decided to start this season with a significant discount and free consultations.
As our concept map writing services are often used by newbie writers & busy students, we decided to start this season with a significant discount and free consultations.
*********** PastEvents ***********
Prof. Alexej Jerschow
In-situ Imaging of Batteries with MRI
Department of Chemistry,
New York University
Wednesday, February 1st, 2017
In collaboration with Energy Club
Dr. David Victor
What a Trump Presidency Means for Global Climate Fight
School of Global Policy and Strategy,
University of California, San Diego
Thursday, December 1st, 2016
Dr. Anton Van der Ven
Understanding electrochemical energy storage with first-principles statistical mechanics approaches
Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara
Thursday, November 3rd, 2016
In-situ Imaging of Batteries with MRI
Department of Chemistry,
New York University
Wednesday, February 1st, 2017
In collaboration with Energy Club
Dr. David Victor
What a Trump Presidency Means for Global Climate Fight
School of Global Policy and Strategy,
University of California, San Diego
Thursday, December 1st, 2016
Dr. Anton Van der Ven
Understanding electrochemical energy storage with first-principles statistical mechanics approaches
Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara
Thursday, November 3rd, 2016
Event Review: Seminar #12 "Next Generation Lithium ion batteries and Beyond”
The UC, San Diego Electrochemical Society in conjunction with the Sustainable Power and Energy Conversion Centre (SPEC) was privileged to host Dr. Khalil Amine from Chemical Science and Engineering Division at Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Khalil Amine’s work on improving energy density, calendar life and safety through novel material design and application has left a significant impact on the field. Dr. Amine introduced the concepts of plug-in, hybrid and electric vehicles with the requirements on the battery for this technology. He showed videos on the new silane based electrolytes developed by his team that have increased safety and donot damage the battery even after repeated sparking. Currently they are running similar tests for entire battery packs.
The UC, San Diego Electrochemical Society in conjunction with the Sustainable Power and Energy Conversion Centre (SPEC) was privileged to host Dr. Khalil Amine from Chemical Science and Engineering Division at Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Khalil Amine’s work on improving energy density, calendar life and safety through novel material design and application has left a significant impact on the field. Dr. Amine introduced the concepts of plug-in, hybrid and electric vehicles with the requirements on the battery for this technology. He showed videos on the new silane based electrolytes developed by his team that have increased safety and donot damage the battery even after repeated sparking. Currently they are running similar tests for entire battery packs.
Event Review: Seminar #11 "ARPA-E: Agriculture Phenotyping, Methane Sensing and Opportunities at the Agency
The UC, San Diego Electrochemical Society was pleased to host Dr. David Brown from the Advanced Research Projects Agency- Energy (ARPA-E). Dr. Brown gave an introduction about ARPA-E which has is build on the 4 principles of Impact- Transform- Bridge-Team. This translates to funding projects that make a direct impact to society but at the same time are transforming ideas and not incremental changes. The ability of ARPA-E to bridge the market-to-innovation by providing funding to develop working prototypes is unique to this agency. Agriculture phenotyping to understand statistically variations in crop to crop cycles by measuring properties of each plant grown in a field reliably through automation will help to increase yield. Methane is a greenhouse gas far worse than carbon dioxide hence ARPA-E is investing in developing mobile methane sensing units.
At last Dr. Brown talked about the Fellow program that gives PhD student who are graduating or close to graduation a chance to work with ARPA-E.
The UC, San Diego Electrochemical Society was pleased to host Dr. David Brown from the Advanced Research Projects Agency- Energy (ARPA-E). Dr. Brown gave an introduction about ARPA-E which has is build on the 4 principles of Impact- Transform- Bridge-Team. This translates to funding projects that make a direct impact to society but at the same time are transforming ideas and not incremental changes. The ability of ARPA-E to bridge the market-to-innovation by providing funding to develop working prototypes is unique to this agency. Agriculture phenotyping to understand statistically variations in crop to crop cycles by measuring properties of each plant grown in a field reliably through automation will help to increase yield. Methane is a greenhouse gas far worse than carbon dioxide hence ARPA-E is investing in developing mobile methane sensing units.
At last Dr. Brown talked about the Fellow program that gives PhD student who are graduating or close to graduation a chance to work with ARPA-E.
Event Review: Seminar #10 "Understanding the risk of Lithium-ion Battery Thermal Runaway"
The UC, San Diego Electrochemical Society was pleased to host Dr. Thomas Barrera from Boeing Satellite Development Center, The Boeing Co. Dr. Barrera's talk focused on the commercial application of batteries for airplanes and satellite applications. The stringent design requirements for such batteries warrant for careful testing of operating conditions especially over a wide temperature range. The need for batteries with enhanced safety became even more apparent when he talked about the the various battery operated components in an astronaut's spacesuit. He concluded the talk with a very important message that testing is not the same as measuring and quality is essential for good research.
During his lunch break, he engaged with students to show videos about thermal runaway processes in single Li-ion batteries and entire modules.
The UC, San Diego Electrochemical Society was pleased to host Dr. Thomas Barrera from Boeing Satellite Development Center, The Boeing Co. Dr. Barrera's talk focused on the commercial application of batteries for airplanes and satellite applications. The stringent design requirements for such batteries warrant for careful testing of operating conditions especially over a wide temperature range. The need for batteries with enhanced safety became even more apparent when he talked about the the various battery operated components in an astronaut's spacesuit. He concluded the talk with a very important message that testing is not the same as measuring and quality is essential for good research.
During his lunch break, he engaged with students to show videos about thermal runaway processes in single Li-ion batteries and entire modules.
Event Review: Seminar #9 "Decoding structure-property relationships of materials using atom probe tomography and correlative microscopy"
The UC, San Diego Electrochemical Society was pleased to host Dr. Arun Devaraj from the Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Lab. Dr. Devaraj's talk focused on a technique called atom probe tomography which is used obtain spatial information as well as chemical mapping. In his talk Dr. Devaraj explained the working mechanism of atom probe tomography with examples and applications to wide variety of materials and systems ranging from battery and catalysis to geological to hard biological materials. Of considerable mention were battery cathode materials for nanoscale composition fluctuations as a function of cycle number, magnetic materials for memory and recording and ant teeth.
The later part of his talk delved into correlative microscopy where using a combination of transmission electron microscopy-TEM (structural information), atom probe tomography- APT (chemical and atomic positioning) and X-ray microscopy (bonding information) you can get a wealth of information about one particular system, in this case understanding the 1st cycle capacity loss in Li ion battery cathodes.
The UC, San Diego Electrochemical Society was pleased to host Dr. Arun Devaraj from the Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Lab. Dr. Devaraj's talk focused on a technique called atom probe tomography which is used obtain spatial information as well as chemical mapping. In his talk Dr. Devaraj explained the working mechanism of atom probe tomography with examples and applications to wide variety of materials and systems ranging from battery and catalysis to geological to hard biological materials. Of considerable mention were battery cathode materials for nanoscale composition fluctuations as a function of cycle number, magnetic materials for memory and recording and ant teeth.
The later part of his talk delved into correlative microscopy where using a combination of transmission electron microscopy-TEM (structural information), atom probe tomography- APT (chemical and atomic positioning) and X-ray microscopy (bonding information) you can get a wealth of information about one particular system, in this case understanding the 1st cycle capacity loss in Li ion battery cathodes.
Event Review: Seminar #8 "Carbon Nano-Materials for Energy Application"
The UC, San Diego Electrochemical Society was pleased to host Prof. Yun Hang Hu from Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Michigan Technological University. Prof. Hu's work focuses on understanding and developing advanced carbon based materials for energy applications. Using a combination of DFT based approaches and experimental techniques, his group is currently developing nanoscale 3D carbon structures as electrodes for photovoltaics and secondary batteries.
His talk started with a description of the history of carbon materials with the evolution from a bulk three dimensional graphite to 2-D graphene sheets and further onto 1-D nanotubes and 0-D fullerenes. He then described defects in fullerenes using DFT approaches and how single defects affect the stability of the overall structure. He then described his group’s expertise in developing a nanoscale 3-D graphene like sheet at low cost to replace electrodes for energy applications. Their ability to obtain similar efficiencies as Pt electrodes for Dye-sensitized solar cells was remarkable. In his concluding remarks, he mentioned of future applications for secondary batteries and perovskite based solar cells.
The UC, San Diego Electrochemical Society was pleased to host Prof. Yun Hang Hu from Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Michigan Technological University. Prof. Hu's work focuses on understanding and developing advanced carbon based materials for energy applications. Using a combination of DFT based approaches and experimental techniques, his group is currently developing nanoscale 3D carbon structures as electrodes for photovoltaics and secondary batteries.
His talk started with a description of the history of carbon materials with the evolution from a bulk three dimensional graphite to 2-D graphene sheets and further onto 1-D nanotubes and 0-D fullerenes. He then described defects in fullerenes using DFT approaches and how single defects affect the stability of the overall structure. He then described his group’s expertise in developing a nanoscale 3-D graphene like sheet at low cost to replace electrodes for energy applications. Their ability to obtain similar efficiencies as Pt electrodes for Dye-sensitized solar cells was remarkable. In his concluding remarks, he mentioned of future applications for secondary batteries and perovskite based solar cells.
Event Review: Seminar #7 "Understanding the Chemical Processes Involved in Electrical Energy Conversion and Storage"
The UC San Diego Electrochemical Society Chapter hosted Dr. Anne Co, Assistant Professor from Department of Chemistry at Ohio State University. Anne Co's work focuses on understanding the chemical processes involved in electrochemical conversion and storage systems. Her talk involved the effect of metallic catalyst on conversion of CO2 into alcohols and aldehydes useful as industrial raw materials. Specifically the role of monolayer and multilayer Cu catalyst was analyzed. On the other hand, they also studied high density anodes for Li ion batteries by using neutron depth profiling (NDP) to identify Li movement within the cell in-situ.
The talk had a couple of interesting questions from the audience regarding fracture in the anodes during high voltage cycling as well as refarding the simulated model for the catalyst process. This was followed by lunch provided by the student chapter and further individual discussions of professors and students with Dr. Anne Co.
The UC San Diego Electrochemical Society Chapter hosted Dr. Anne Co, Assistant Professor from Department of Chemistry at Ohio State University. Anne Co's work focuses on understanding the chemical processes involved in electrochemical conversion and storage systems. Her talk involved the effect of metallic catalyst on conversion of CO2 into alcohols and aldehydes useful as industrial raw materials. Specifically the role of monolayer and multilayer Cu catalyst was analyzed. On the other hand, they also studied high density anodes for Li ion batteries by using neutron depth profiling (NDP) to identify Li movement within the cell in-situ.
The talk had a couple of interesting questions from the audience regarding fracture in the anodes during high voltage cycling as well as refarding the simulated model for the catalyst process. This was followed by lunch provided by the student chapter and further individual discussions of professors and students with Dr. Anne Co.
Event Review: Seminar #6 "Development of High Capacity Ni Based Cathodes for Lithium-ion Batteries"
The UC San Diego Electrochemical Society Chapter hosted Dr. Wei Tong, a staff scientist of Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division in Energy Technologies Area (ETA) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Wei Tong's work focuses on high capacity Ni based cathodes for Lithium-ion batteries. She believes Ni-rich LiNixMnyCozO2 (NMCs) is promising compositions for the use of cathode materials in Li-ion batteries in terms of energy density, cost and safety. High Ni content however, causes several issues, including the tendency of Li / Ni mixing and catalyzing the electrolyte oxidation. She explained her understanding of Ni behavior on the surface and in the bulk of pure LiNiO2 with the assistance of synchrotron XRD and soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy techniques. Then she discussed development of Li2NiO2 which is a new chemistry with the goal to stabilize the crystal structure as well as cycling performance by cation / anion substitution. There were a few chemical scientists from Wildcat Discovery Technologies in addition to graduate students, postdocs and visiting scholars in UCSD NanoEngineering Department. All the participants had a meaningful time learning cutting edge research of the national lab and interacting with the speaker through Question & Answer session. The seminar was followed by casual lunch and individual meetings with the speaker and faculty.
The UC San Diego Electrochemical Society Chapter hosted Dr. Wei Tong, a staff scientist of Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division in Energy Technologies Area (ETA) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Wei Tong's work focuses on high capacity Ni based cathodes for Lithium-ion batteries. She believes Ni-rich LiNixMnyCozO2 (NMCs) is promising compositions for the use of cathode materials in Li-ion batteries in terms of energy density, cost and safety. High Ni content however, causes several issues, including the tendency of Li / Ni mixing and catalyzing the electrolyte oxidation. She explained her understanding of Ni behavior on the surface and in the bulk of pure LiNiO2 with the assistance of synchrotron XRD and soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy techniques. Then she discussed development of Li2NiO2 which is a new chemistry with the goal to stabilize the crystal structure as well as cycling performance by cation / anion substitution. There were a few chemical scientists from Wildcat Discovery Technologies in addition to graduate students, postdocs and visiting scholars in UCSD NanoEngineering Department. All the participants had a meaningful time learning cutting edge research of the national lab and interacting with the speaker through Question & Answer session. The seminar was followed by casual lunch and individual meetings with the speaker and faculty.
Event Review: Outreach #1 "NANO Day"
Our board members, Jimmy Mac, Jeremy Rosenfeld, and Haodong Liu spent the day informing the San Diego community about electrochemistry and nanotechnology at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. Nano DAY is an annual event where live demonstrations are held to educate and inform people of all ages about the promise of nanotechnology. For more information visit: http://www.rhfleet.org/events/nano-day
Event Review: Seminar #5 "Expanding Electrochemical Stability Window of Electrolytes"
The Electrochemical Society hosted Dr. Kang Xu, who is a senior chemist at Electrochemistry Branch of U. S. Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland. Kang Xu's work focuses on the electrolyte component of energy storage technology. He believes it is essential, and determines a number of key performances of the device, including temperature range for service, rate of electrochemical reaction, safety under both normal and abusive operations, cycle/calendar life as well as the maximum voltage and capacity allowed. One of the important properties of the electrolyte he discussed was the electrochemical stability window and showed that the electrodes operate at potentials far beyond what thermodynamics allowed. He explained the importance of the stability window to his team for the U.S. Army, and discussed his efforts to understand this basic phenomenon and exploring various means to affect the surface chemistry at electrode/electrolyte junctions to expand the electrochemical window, specifically for rechargeable batteries.
*Event Review: Seminar #4* "Wildcat Discovery Technologies Seminar":
Dr. Marissa Caldwell hails from Wildcat Discovery Technologies, a company that specializes in high-throughput methods for discovering and optimizing better battery components. Borrowing techniques from pharmacology, Wildcat Technologies goes through hundreds or thousands iterations of a particular battery component, such as the cathode, while slightly tweaking the processing parameters or additives in order to optimize a material. In this seminar, Dr. Caldwell walked the audience through three case studies that highlights the capabilities of Wildcat Technologies. First, she covered coatings in carbon monofluoride batteries, which are prized by the military for applications that require extreme robustness and durability. Wildcat Technologies created a variety of coatings with subtle changes in constituent elements that mostly had generally improved voltage and power characteristics. The second case study dealt with the infamous solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) issue that plagues silicon anode batteries. Over 2000 different electrolyte combinations with a myriad of additives and solvents were synthesized and tested with the silicon anodes, with some configurations offering dramatic improvements in anode performance. Lastly, Dr. Caldwell covered Wildcat’s work on solid-state batteries and the formulation of solid-state electrolytes that do away with the use of volatile and dangerous organic solvents used in today’s liquid electrolytes. With this seminar, students were able to see the industrial side of science and engineering, one they are not often exposed to.
Dr. Marissa Caldwell hails from Wildcat Discovery Technologies, a company that specializes in high-throughput methods for discovering and optimizing better battery components. Borrowing techniques from pharmacology, Wildcat Technologies goes through hundreds or thousands iterations of a particular battery component, such as the cathode, while slightly tweaking the processing parameters or additives in order to optimize a material. In this seminar, Dr. Caldwell walked the audience through three case studies that highlights the capabilities of Wildcat Technologies. First, she covered coatings in carbon monofluoride batteries, which are prized by the military for applications that require extreme robustness and durability. Wildcat Technologies created a variety of coatings with subtle changes in constituent elements that mostly had generally improved voltage and power characteristics. The second case study dealt with the infamous solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) issue that plagues silicon anode batteries. Over 2000 different electrolyte combinations with a myriad of additives and solvents were synthesized and tested with the silicon anodes, with some configurations offering dramatic improvements in anode performance. Lastly, Dr. Caldwell covered Wildcat’s work on solid-state batteries and the formulation of solid-state electrolytes that do away with the use of volatile and dangerous organic solvents used in today’s liquid electrolytes. With this seminar, students were able to see the industrial side of science and engineering, one they are not often exposed to.
*Event Review: Seminar #3*
In recent years, first principles methods have become an essential toolkit in the materials designer toolkit. Starting from the basic laws of physics with minimal assumptions, first principles methods can access a broad range of chemistries, a critical requirement for materials design. In this talk, Dr. Shyue Ping Ong illustrated how the age of ubiquitous computing power and informatics has revolutionized materials design in energy storage. In particular, he demonstrated how high-throughput first principles computations have been used to construct one of the world's largest materials property database, which was then used to identify completely novel electrode and electrolyte chemistries. He also shared his vision of the future of data-driven materials design in electrochemistry.
*Event Review: Seminar #2*
The latest endeavor of the founding members was hosting another seminar. Our chapter was fortunate enough to have esteemed faculty member, Dr. Jan Talbot, discuss her work on electrophoretic deposition. Dr. Jan Talbot did an amazing job providing a fundamental background on how to effectively conduct electrophoretic deposition, as well as discuss her the applications of it in industry and academia. Other topics aside from electrochemistry included intermolecular and surface forces, which welcomed physical scientists and materials engineers. Dr. Talbot attributed simplicity in the design of her experiments as well as a cooperative working environment to her success. This was truly a powerful seminar that gave insight on the unpredictable nature of how one becomes an expert in an unimpacted field and benefits society. We are thankful for the attendance of current members, and our new members, and look forward to what is to come.
The latest endeavor of the founding members was hosting another seminar. Our chapter was fortunate enough to have esteemed faculty member, Dr. Jan Talbot, discuss her work on electrophoretic deposition. Dr. Jan Talbot did an amazing job providing a fundamental background on how to effectively conduct electrophoretic deposition, as well as discuss her the applications of it in industry and academia. Other topics aside from electrochemistry included intermolecular and surface forces, which welcomed physical scientists and materials engineers. Dr. Talbot attributed simplicity in the design of her experiments as well as a cooperative working environment to her success. This was truly a powerful seminar that gave insight on the unpredictable nature of how one becomes an expert in an unimpacted field and benefits society. We are thankful for the attendance of current members, and our new members, and look forward to what is to come.
Week #2: General Body Meeting (GBM)
When: Oct. 15th, 2014 (Wednesday)
Time: 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Location: Cymer Conference Room (Structural & Materials Engineering Building)
The Electrochemical Society - UCSD Student Chapter held their first general body meeting of the year on Week 2.
New members were able to meet others who share a passion for electrochemistry and learned about the exciting opportunities available for them as well as each of the board officer's backgrounds, their mission, and the upcoming events planned.
When: Oct. 15th, 2014 (Wednesday)
Time: 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Location: Cymer Conference Room (Structural & Materials Engineering Building)
The Electrochemical Society - UCSD Student Chapter held their first general body meeting of the year on Week 2.
New members were able to meet others who share a passion for electrochemistry and learned about the exciting opportunities available for them as well as each of the board officer's backgrounds, their mission, and the upcoming events planned.
"Surface Dynamics at Electrochemical Interfaces"
-Dr. Olaf Magnussen-
Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics
University Kiel, Germany Wednesday, June 25, 2014
With the excitement of a new ECS student chapter, the founding members wanted to demonstrate their enthusiasm by hosting their first seminar. Although this chapter has only active for a month, it was great pleasure to host our first speaker. With the help of Professor Shirley Meng, Dr. Olaf Magnussen from the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität (CAU) in Kiel, Germany presented his work on surface dynamics at electrochemical interfaces. During the talk, he introduced his work on fast in situ scanning tunneling microscopy (Video-STM), which allows direct observation of the atomic motion at the interface. With the help of statistical analysis, quantitative data on the diffusion barriers and interaction energies from the STM videos.
This seminar brought students from various departments such as of Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, and Nanoengineering. The students at UCSD show great interests in Electrochemistry and the ECS organization. With this seminar the organization has gained 25 new members. This summer, we hope to organize the events for the upcoming academic school year (2014-2015) and host more seminars.
This seminar brought students from various departments such as of Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, and Nanoengineering. The students at UCSD show great interests in Electrochemistry and the ECS organization. With this seminar the organization has gained 25 new members. This summer, we hope to organize the events for the upcoming academic school year (2014-2015) and host more seminars.