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ESE Seminar – Juner Zhu: “Decoding Complexity for Sustainability: Electrochemo-Mechanical Methods for Battery Lifetime Extension and End-of-Life Assessment”
January 27 @ 8:30 pm - 9:20 pm
Abstract
The increasing complexity of advanced engineered systems poses significant challenges to sustainability. Complex systems are harder to interpret and manage, complicating efforts to design for sustainable practices like lifetime extension, rejuvenation, and reuse. Additionally, assessing system status becomes more difficult, hindering sustainable end-of-life decisions. Lastly, complexity complicates disassembly. Addressing these challenges requires fundamental scientific advances to decode complexity for sustainability.
This seminar highlights our group’s work in developing electro-chemo-mechanical methodologies to enhance the sustainability of batteries, a key engineered system. Focusing on the simple mechanical concept of pressure, the first part explores how applying stack pressure can extend battery lifetime. For Li-metal solid-state batteries (Li-SSBs), reliable operation depends heavily on external pressure. Using electrochemo-mechanical phase-field models of microscale interfaces, we constructed a ‘phase diagram’ to map the safe operating zone of Li-SSBs under varying currents and pressures, avoiding failure mechanisms like void growth, fracture, and Li penetration. Our recent experimental data also showed that proper stack pressure on calendar-aged commercial EV cells can extend their lifetime by over 1000 cycles, shedding light on a potential second-life application. We developed computational models coupling porous electrode theory with powder plasticity to reveal the key deformation mechanisms for pressure management.
The second part examines how stack pressure can be used for battery status assessment. We ambitiously aim to reinvent the traditional electrochemical methods and have developed two techniques: differential pressure analysis (DPA) and mechano-electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (MEIS), inspired by their electrochemical counterparts DCA (where C stands for capacity) and EIS. Our methods capture coupled electrochemo-mechanical effects, providing unique insights into electrode microstructural changes. Cost-effective and scalable, these pressure-based approaches show strong potential for industrial applications in battery monitoring and lifetime extension.
Bio
Dr. Juner Zhu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University, where he has served since August 2022. Prior to this role, he was a Research Scientist at MIT, working jointly in the Departments of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering. At MIT, he co-developed the 2020–2022 phase of the Industrial Battery Consortium (IBC) and served as Executive Director, collaborating with eight industrial partners in the EV, battery, and consumer electronics sectors. During this time, Dr. Zhu expanded his research focus from mechanical safety and reliability to battery sustainability, employing data-enabled electrochemo-mechanical methods.
In 2023, Dr. Zhu co-founded the Center for Battery Sustainability (CBS), a collaborative platform with MIT for university-industry-government partnerships. Under his leadership, CBS has grown to include five industrial members, secured two major federal projects supported by DOE/ARPA-E and DOE/VTO, focusing on battery lifetime extension and robotic disassembly for recycling, and developed a central project to develop next-generation sustainable battery packs.
Dr. Zhu has published over 40 journal articles in areas spanning coupled mechanics, energy storage systems, and scientific machine learning. His work has earned several prestigious accolades, including the Electrochemical Society (ECS) Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship (2024), the Ford University Research Program Award (2024), the LG Energy Solution Battery Innovation Contest Award (2023), and the ASME Haythornthwaite Foundation Research Initiation Grant (2022). Dr. Zhu received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University, graduating with the highest honor for graduate students in 2015.