Department: Molecular Engineering
Advisor: Lilo Pozzo
From electric vehicles to grid-scale storage, our need for higher voltage, safer and more sustainable batteries is immense. Yet, development often lags because of a vast materials design space. My work sits at the intersection of high-throughput experimentation and advanced battery materials, developing workflows around small-angle X-ray scattering for rapid materials development and characterization. My projects will include the optimization of high-concentration electrolytes with emergent solvation structures for use in lithium-metal batteries. In collaboration with the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, I will also investigate porous structures that emerge in thermochemically treated biomasses, developing new geometric models that will enable locally-sourced bioderived carbons for use as functional anodes in sodium-ion batteries.