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

Sathya Narayanan Jagadeesan, Postdoctoral Scholar

SLAC-Stanford Battery Center, Applied Energy Division, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

"Multimodal Synchrotron X-ray Techniques to Understand Electrolyte Engineering for Aqueous Iron Batteries"

Talk Abstract: 

Stationary battery systems are vital to implementing renewable energy infrastructures for a sustainable decarbonized economy by storing wind and solar power in the electricity grid to align the fluctuating demand and supply of electricity. Utilizing aqueous electrolytes is an instrumental step forward to next-generation technologies to mitigate the supply chain risks of commercial batteries for large-scale implementation. Iron metal-based aqueous batteries hold great potential for extensive grid-scale energy solutions due to iron’s high theoretical specific capacity, ultralow cost, and abundance. However, rechargeable aqueous iron batteries are inadequately employed since iron redox suffers from parasitic side reactions, resulting in poor efficiency and requiring a better understanding of foundational aspects in their materials sciences.

Our investigation using multimodal synchrotron techniques such as operando X-ray scattering, ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and X-ray fluorescence micro-imaging is beneficial for investigating the redox chemistry of iron electrodes and the structural chemistry of aqueous electrolytes. Such intricate information about the operations of earth-abundant iron for batteries using eco-friendly aqueous electrolytes promises their immense impact on the industrialization of long-duration grid storage technologies.

Sathya is a postdoctoral scholar at SLAC-Stanford Battery Center, working with Dr. Xueli Zheng on electrolyte engineering for ultralow-cost alternative energy storage devices. His research expertise includes using synchrotron measurements to understand the fundamental aspects of aqueous batteries. Sathya has user experience with various synchrotron and neutron facilities in the USA, such as NSLS-II @ Brookhaven, SSRL @ SLAC, ALS @ Lawrence Berkeley, APS @ Argonne, and SNS/HFIR @ Oak Ridge National Laboratories. He graduated with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he worked with Dr. Xiaowei Teng on fostering anion-intercalation for rechargeable alkaline iron batteries. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical and Electrochemical Engineering from the Central Electrochemical Research Institute, one of India's prominent national laboratories dedicated to electrochemical research. Sathya strives to implement aqueous iron batteries with better storage capability and cycle life for commercial purposes in modern grid-storage applications.