Linqin Mu

With the continuously increasing concern of traditional fuels, e.g., gas, fossil, the importance of developing renewable energy has been mentioned at an unprecedented height. Renewable energies (e.g., tides, wind, solar, electric, and so on) need specific energy storage systems to reach consumers. Thus, devices such as electrochemical energy storage play a vital role to meet the demands. Amongst which, rechargeable batteries are regarded as one important energy storage form because of their high energy transfer efficiency, high volume, and energy density, high power capability, and long cycle life. Note that because of the nature of intermittent, regional limitation, volatility of renewable energies, we need to explore the electrochemical energy storage batteries to satisfy various demands of consumers. Meanwhile, the portable device and transportation consumers request a lighter, safer, high capacity, chipper, and long cycle life battery, which put forward a higher requirement to the battery community. The mismatches create a lot of opportunities and research topics both in academia and industry.  Based on these considerations, my research program would be aiming at engineering/developing advanced electrode materials through the understanding of the degradation and safety mechanisms. Meanwhile, the chemical and physical properties associated with fundamental scientific questions in batteries is also another major research project. Another scope would be using my experience to develop other battery chemistries, e.g., quasi/all-solid-state batteries for the consideration of safety improvement. The research is complexes that require multiple interdisciplinary knowledge, e.g., chemistry, physics, material synthesis, engineering, electrochemistry, thermodynamics, Solid-state Ionics, crystallography, techniques for material characterization, and so on. The mission of the project is to ignite the major technological breakthroughs in energy storage devices by the deep understanding and regulating the electronic/crystal structures, interfacial chemical/physical properties, and electron/ion transport in these materials.