This is a past event.

ME-EM Graduate Seminar Speaker Series

proudly presents

Nikhil A. Koratkar, PhD

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Abstract

Battery electrodes comprise a current collector onto which a mix of active material particles, conductive carbon and binder additives are deposited. While this basic design has persisted for decades, the desired “size” of the active material particle is a matter of debate. Advances in nanotechnology have spurred interest in deploying nanoparticles as the active material. In this talk, I will compare nano with micro-particle electrodes, and discuss why the battery industry is unlikely to replace micro with nano-size particles. Given this, I will address the question as to whether there is a place for nanomaterials in battery design. I will show that the way forward lies in micro-particles constructed by the assembly of nanoscale building blocks and in micro-particles with engineered or natural nano-porosity. Such “multiscale particles” offer exciting possibilities to develop the next-generation of battery electrodes that are quintessentially both micro and nano with respect to their performance attributes.

Bio

Nikhil Koratkar is the John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). His research has focused on the synthesis, characterization and application of advanced materials. Professor Koratkar is a winner of the NSF CAREER Award (2003), RPI James M. Tien '66 Early Career Award (2005), the Electrochemical Society's SES Young investigator Award (2009), American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award (2015), IIT-Bombay Distinguished Alumnus Award (2019) and the RPI William H. Wiley 1866 Distinguished Faculty Award (2021). Koratkar is also a Fellow of APS, AAAS and ASME. He has published a book on graphene as an additive in composite materials and over 240 archival journal papers (>35,000 citations, H-index = 89). In 2018 and 2021, Clarivate Analytics named him in their highly cited researchers list. Koratkar serves as an Editor of CARBON (Elsevier). He is a co-founder and serves on the advisory board of a start-up company (Alsym Energy) aimed at commercializing next-generation energy storage solutions.

Invited by: Susanta Ghosh