First Webinar in New Monthly Tribology Series

The Tribology Division has scheduled a monthly webinar series for all interested in tribology. The first of the series begins with Mechanics-Enabled Simulation and Design of the Anode-Cathode Interface in Lithium Metal Batteries.  It will be presented by Q. Jane Wang, a professor in the Northwestern University Department of Mechanical Engineering, on Friday, June 24, 2022, at 12 pm ET.

All solid-state batteries are among future promising energy technologies. Electrolyte surface roughness, interfacial resistance, packing pressure, current density, Li creep and yield, and ion conductivity affect the macroscopic long-time charge-discharge behavior of a battery cell via microscopic transient Li plating and stripping. This presentation reports a three-dimensional, time-dependent, mechanics-based electrokinetic model, solved in the Laplace-Fourier domains, to quantify the effects of topography, external pressure, electrolyte Young’s modulus, yield and creep properties, and ionic conductivity on the mechano-electrochemical behaviors of solid-state lithium cells. The evolution of interface morphology, potential change, and plating and stripping are simulated for the design of the Li-SE interface via adjusting external pressure, composite SE materials, and interface conformity. Simulation-based methods to determine the mechanical properties of plated Li metal and interfacial electrical resistance are suggested.

Q. Jane Wang obtained her doctorate in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University in 1993 and is now a professor there. Her research is mainly in the areas of contact/interfacial mechanics and tribological science. She served the professional communities as a member of Board of Directors of STLE during 2008-2009, Chair of the Program Committee of the 2008 STLE Annual Meeting, Chair of the 2011 ASME/STLE International Joint Tribology Conference. She was elected a Fellow of the ASME in 2009 and STLE in 2007. She received the 2015 STLE International Award, the highest award of the society.