Please join us to hear Dr. Denis Yu from the School of Energy and Environment at City University of Hong Kong speak about a new metal-metal battery that is free from complex material synthesis processes and can turn cheap and abundant metals into potential high-voltage batteries.
Abstract
Metals are attractive materials for electrochemical devices because they can undergo oxidation and reduction reactions with high specific capacities. For example, a classic metal-metal battery, the Daniell cell, utilizes Cu and Zn metals as the electrodes for discharge. The cell, however, has a low voltage of about 1 V and is not rechargeable due to the crossover of Cu ions to the anode.
The voltage can be increased by replacing Zn anode with other lower electrochemical potential metals such as Li using aprotic electrolyte. It is possible to use Ag, stainless steel and Cu as cathode materials to get a battery with more than 2.5 V. Different methods suppress the crossover of the cations from the cathode to the anode.
Recently, Dr. Yu’s group created a stable 3V Cu/Al battery with just metal discs and foils as electrodes, without any other active materials. The new metal-metal battery is free from complex material synthesis processes and can turn cheap and abundant metals into potential high-voltage batteries. Dr. Yu will show detailed results and characterizations at the seminar.
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Denis Yu is an associate professor at the School of Energy and Environment at City University of Hong Kong.
He received his PhD in Applied Physics from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University in 2003.
He worked as an engineer at SANYO Electric Co. Ltd. in Japan for eight years, developing cathode and anode materials for Li-ion batteries. Afterwards, he led the battery activities at the Energy Research Institute at Nanyang Technological University and TUM CREATE Centre for Electromobility in Singapore as a senior scientist for two years before joining City University of Hong Kong.
His research interests include the development and characterization of novel materials and systems for energy storage applications.