CAREER: Leveraging Defects & Disorder for Fast Ion Conduction

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NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Significant technological advancement relies on creating new materials with unprecedented functions or improving existing materials for superior performance. This project aims to pave a new path beyond the current state of the art for designing and discovering functional materials by understanding the impacts of defects. Defects in materials are disruptions to the periodic order of atom arrangements and serve as a double-edged sword. On one hand, defects are critical to delivering many key properties of materials, for instance, fast ion conduction necessary for energy storage with high-energy and high-power densities, and on the other hand, they can lead to materials performance failure such as short-circuit in batteries, instability, or short lifetime. The new knowledge gained from this research activity fills the gap in fundamental understanding of defect chemistry, enables controlled creation of functional defects in technologically important materials, and allows minimization of detrimental defects for improved materials performance. The outcomes advance technologies such as energy conversion and storage, data manipulation, sensors, and actuators. Students trained within this project will typically find employment in national laboratories engaged in R&D of chemical and materials science, or high-tech industries that enable novel technologies - both pathways can enhance national competitiveness. TECHNICAL DETAILS: The lack in understanding structural defects, including their nature and function, has limited the proper employment of defects to enhance materials performance or to minimize performance failures. This project aims to achieve controlled defect creation in functional materials in order to deliver new properties or significantly enhance materials performance by characterizing, understanding, and predicting defects at different time and length scales. This research combines theoretical investigation and advanced characterization (nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy) to examine defect formation, evolution, and their impacts on ion conduction and materials stability in 3D solid ion conductors. The insights gained will transform materials design and lead to more efficient materials discovery for technological advancement in energy storage. University students (at both the undergraduate and graduate levels) are trained in first principles calculations, materials informatics approaches, advanced materials synthesis and/or characterization. A materials chemistry seminar program in partnership with a historically black institution is established to recruit minority students. High-school internship and middle school mentorship programs at FSU are leveraged to engage K-12 students in scientific research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.