StorageX is pleased to be kicking off its monthly StorageX group meetings.  The objective of these group meetings is to create an opportunity for sharing research updates, sharing of ideas, and for informal social exchange of the StorageX ecosystem, analogous to a research group meeting. 

We invite the students, researchers and faculty of the StorageX Seed fund awards to attend and give a semi-annual update on their research. The meetings are held hybrid. Lunch is provided.

Speaker

Mike Baird, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University
"Ion-selective Polymer Membranes for Battery Waste Up-cycling

Bio:
Mike Baird is a Stanford Energy Postdoctoral Fellow working jointly between the Tarpeh and Xia labs to develop electrolytic membrane reactors for battery waste upcycling. He obtained a B.S. in chemistry from University of California, Riverside, then spent two years in industry at Illumina before resuming his studies at University of California, Berkeley, completing a Ph.D. in chemistry. Mike conducted his doctoral research in the laboratory of Brett Helms at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he synthesized microporous polymer membranes and sorbents for lithium extraction from natural feedstocks which are highly dilute in the target species. He additionally investigated electrolytes for next-generation battery chemistries (i.e., lithium metal anode) with suitable transport and reactivity characteristics for aggressive battery operation.

Talk Abstract: 
The advent of lithium batteries is ushering in electrified transportation, a key component of the renewable energy transition. However, the benefits of a global electric vehicle rollout must be weighed against the challenges of obtaining battery precursors, which intensify geopolitical, humanitarian, and environmental crises. Spent batteries are a potential feedstock to alleviate supply chain pressures, but conventional methods for refining metals from battery waste are energy- and reagent-intensive. Alternatively, electrolytic membrane reactors represent a scalable route for precision metal refining from battery waste with low energy input, provided the internal membranes can effectively separate dissolved metal ions. In this presentation, I will share my progress in elucidating design rules for ion-selective polymer membranes which distinguish critical metals found in batteries (e.g., Ni²⁺ and Co²⁺), employing poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate networks with grafted ion-binding ligands of varying coordinating power. Fine-tuning ligand frontier orbital energies with electronic donating or withdrawing substituents emerges as a powerful knob for regulating metal ion permeation rates, which may follow or defy the periodic trends commonly invoked to rationalize permeation behavior, such as ionic radius and hydration energy.