In this course, students will learn the principles, advances, and physical and chemical challenges associated with the development of energy storage. Predominantly, batteries have recently attracted great interest as potentially safe and stable high-energy storage systems. However, key issues remain unsolved, hindering full-scale commercialization. The main focus will be on the principles, materials aspects and recycling relevant to batteries, such as currently the liquid-electrolyte 3rd generation Li-ion batteries. Because the field of energy storage and conversion advances very rapidly, the course will closely monitor and follow the latest developments and achievements as, for example, in a couple of years, solid-state batteries may become commercialized and, therefore, their mechanism, challenges, operation principles, sustainability and recyclability should then be covered by the course with great detail. Although the main physical and chemical principles remain mostly unchanged, the development in the field is mostly driven by discovering new emerging materials trying to fulfil and meet the contradictory requirements and trade-off between high density, fast (dis)charging, safety and recyclability at the end of the battery life. Beyond batteries, other major principles driving the EU initiatives in energy may be covered, those are solar cells for energy conversion and phase-change materials for energy storage, or other technologies reflecting the need of the student's research project, such as triboelectric nanogenerators for energy conversion as smart textiles etc. The main focus will be on the materials aspect and the physico-chemical principles of the technologies and philosophies of energy storage and conversion. The topics covered are: 1. Electrochemical storage systems, battery technology, overview, and review of historical milestones in battery and energy storage research. 2. Fast ionic conductors - ionic conductivity, temperature dependence, Jump model - "hopping model - random walk", activation energy, geometric considerations. 3. Ionic conductivity measurement - AC and DC regime, diffusion coefficient, chemical interpretation. 4. Fast ionic conductors - solid-state electrolytes (SSE), cationic Na+, Li+, proton and anionic (O2-) compounds, conductivity mechanism. 5. Battery materials - SSE, anodes cathodes, a lithium-ion intercalation cell, charging and recharging curves, solid-state electrochemistry. 6. Cathode materials - layered intercalate cathode materials - TiS2 and LixCo(Mn)O2, polyanion oxides, synthesis, challenges. 7. Anodes materials - graphene, Li3N, LiC6, Si, MXenes. 8. Solid State Electrolytes - NASICON, LISICON, LIPON, oxides, sulphides, hydrides, halides, borates and phosphate, thin films, polymers, and structure. 9. Polymeric separators and materials - technologies of preparation (electrospinning methods), fire-retardant separators, improving battery safety for thermal management and thermal runaway. 10. Batteries challenges - problems to be solved, battery safety, thermal management, multiscale ion transport on nano-, micro-, meso- and macroscopic scales, electromechanical stresses associated with volume changes. 11. Applications, recent progress and next-generation technologies. 12. Sustainability of the battery industry, recycling processes of the key battery components - challenges and opportunities, 2nd life approach to battery recycling.
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