CAREER: In Situ Nanomechanics of High-Performance Anode Materials for Sodium-Ion Batteries

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This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program project will characterize the nanomechanical and electrochemical interactions in sodium-ion battery electrode materials and develop constitutive models to elucidate the morphological and structural evolution in these materials. As one of the most widespread technologies for energy storage, lithium-ion batteries have been under intense studies over the past two decades. Sodium-ion batteries are being considered as a low-cost alternative because sodium is much more earth abundant and less geographically constrained than lithium. However, the development of advanced sodium-ion batteries has been hindered by a significant unexplored gap in understanding the mechanics of high-performance electrode materials. The proposed research spans several disciplines, including mechanics, materials science, physics, and electrochemistry. The fundamental understanding obtained in this research will make a profound impact on these disciplines. The multidisciplinary work will train undergraduate and graduate students with a broad range of skills and knowledge, and expose them to the complementary research of experimentation and modeling. The research will also involve K-12 teachers and students, particularly females and minorities, through various outreach programs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The research results will be integrated into the lab modules of a new course on experimental solid mechanics.Energy storage and release of sodium-ion battery electrodes involves a complex set of mechanical and electrochemical processes, including deformation, stress generation, mass transport, phase transformation, and chemical reaction. A fundamental understanding of the mechanics and its strong coupling with other physical phenomena is required to achieve breakthroughs in the sodium-ion battery technology. The research objective of this award is to develop an in situ nanomechanical testing platform for the constitutive characterizations of sodium-ion battery electrode materials. The experimental framework will be employed to investigate the in situ mechanics of sodiated/desodiated germanium and germanium-tin alloys, which are two promising high-performance anode materials for advanced sodium-ion batteries. The space- and time-resolved constitutive behaviors from experimental measurements will be incorporated into a continuum computational model for predictive simulations of the mechanical degradation and morphological evolution in solid electrode materials.