Presentation at DIFFER PhD Colloquium
Dr. Xuan Zhou from our group will present at the annual DIFFER PhD Colloquium organized by the PhD association of DIFFER. Xuan’s presentation is titled Data-driven Discovery for Battery Electrode Materials. Her presentation is scheduled at 14:00 hours on Friday, May 31, 2024 at DIFFER.
Publication in Energy & Environmental Science
Our exp-theory collaborative work with the Vlad Energy Group of UCLouvain has been published in Energy & Environmental Science. The research paper is titled Towards the 4 V-class n-type organic lithium-ion positive electrode materials: the case of conjugated triflimides and cyanamides. This study expands the chemical landscape of organic Li-ion positive electrode chemistries towards the 4 V-class through molecular design, synthesis, and electrochemical characterization. The new findings offer promising opportunities to customize the redox properties of organic electrodes, bridging the gap with their inorganic counterparts for application in sustainable and eco-friendly electrochemical energy storage devices. Furthermore, the work appeared on DIFFER news, both in Dutch and English.
Publication in Digital Discovery
Our manuscript titled Discovery of lead quinone cathode materials for Li-ion batteries has been published in Digital Discovery from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). In this study, we applied machine learning and semi-empirical quantum mechanical methods to study a chemical space of approximately 200,000 compounds for use as cathode materials in Li-ion batteries. Additionally, by performing an automated search on a commercial vendor database, computing battery-relevant properties, and evaluating the structural integrity upon the lithiation process, a total of 349 molecules were identified as potentially high-performing cathode materials for Li-ion batteries. Furthermore, one example of a candidate compound was tested through cyclic voltammetry experiments, which showed highly promising results.
Publication in Energy Advances
Our manuscript titled Virtual Screening of Organic Quinones as Cathode Materials for Sodium-Ion Batteries has been published in Energy Advances from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). In this study, we applied a DFT-empowered high-throughput virtual screening study that reckoned with the most essential battery-relevant properties of 448,658 molecules. Among them, we identified 17 highly promising compounds for validation as candidate cathode materials in sodium-ion batteries, which are seen as alternatives to lithium-ion batteries because of the natural abundance, low cost, and high safety of sodium when compared to lithium.