Shashwat Singh

My work lies at the sweet spot of chemistry, physics, and little bit of engineering. I conduct in-depth investigations of the famous materials tetrahedron: structure-property-processing-performance relationship. 

For my PhD thesis work, I studied “Structural and Electrochemical Investigation of Bisulfate and Hydroxysulfate based Polyanionic Cathodes.”  

Since its introduction in 1991 by SONY^®, Li-ion battery (LIB) technology has revolutionized the portable electronics sector. However, with the recent worldwide push toward a “green” economy, the demand for efficient electrochemical energy storage based on Li-ion chemistry has grown extensively to include electric vehicles and an improved grid scale storage sector. As the Li-based resources are sparsely distributed and amenable to price manipulation, there is a need to explore “beyond Li-ion” chemistry along with the development of earth abundant and environmentally benign novel cathode materials for Li/Na/K ions. In this context, polyanionic compounds are promising cathode candidates offering voltage tunability, based on their inductive effect principle, structural stability, diverse crystal chemistry, and polymorphism. Uniquely, the polyanionic sulfates can provide a framework for economical low temperature synthesis and high voltage cathodes. Using breakthrough works of 3.83 V Li₂Fe(SO₄)₂bisulfate, 3.2 V FeSO₄OH and 3.6 V LiFeSO₄OH hydroxysulfate as LIB cathode and 3.25 V NaFe(SO₄)₂eldfellite as sodium ion battery cathode as benchmarks, the corresponding families were explored further to unveil novel cathode materials employing low temperature synthesis approach. The major achievements of my doctoral thesis work based on structure-property (physical and electrochemical) was the unveiling of marinite monoclinic Li₂Ni(SO₄)₂ bisulfate (5.5 V), saranchinaite, Na₂Cu(SO₄)₂ conversion electrode, multiple redox in eldfellite NaV(SO₄)₂ and orthorhombic LiFeSO₄OH (3.2 V) LIB cathode.   

As a postdoctoral researcher at UWaterloo, I am excited to explore new avenues in the fields of Na-ion batteries, all solid-state Li-S batteries, and solid electrolytes for alkali/alkaline ion batteries.