Abstract: Renewable energy sources e.g., wind, solar, and hydroelectricity have attracted enormous interest in the past decades. However, there are still some challenges to capture those energy sources and store the energy effectively. In this talk, I will discuss recent advances made in my group on the understanding of the correlation between mechanics and electrochemistry in advanced materials, and their applications in next generation energy storage devices. Firstly, I will present several techniques developed in my lab to manufacture advanced materials with controllable morphology and properties for energy storage devices by performing bottom-up investigations to unravel the process-property-performance relationship. Next, I will discuss our recent studies on the electro-chemo-mechanical correlation to regulate ion transport in next generation batteries such as lithium metal batteries. Despite the great promise of the Li metal electrode, the accurate mechanism of suppressing dendrite growth and stabilizing the electrode at the interface is less understood and not well established. I will discuss our findings to develop new understandings of the key mechanical and chemical factors of the interface that leads to stable charge/discharge processes of the Li metal electrode by integrating experimental efforts, in-situ observation, and multi-scale simulations.  The strategies to break the conventional tradeoff of mechanical and electrochemical properties at the interface to improve the safety and performance of Li metal batteries will be also discussed. At the end of the talk, I will also discuss other ongoing and proposed projects comprising fundamental and applied studies.

Biography: Yue Zhou is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas.  Dr. Zhou received his Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University, his M.S. and B.S. both from Nanjing University.  He has been working as a Postdoctoral Associate in Mechanics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for two years.  He was formerly an Assistant Professor at South Dakota State University (2018-2022).   His research interests mainly focus on next generation energy storage devices, energy conversion, advanced material manufacturing, electronic materials/devices, and biomedical devices. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles. His research and teaching have been recognized with several awards, such as ONR Young Investigator Award (2022), NSF Early Career Award (2022), outstanding doctoral research award, conference awards, and recognitions such as IEEE Senior Membership.