2014 MRS Spring Meeting Symposium P: Mechanics of Energy Storage and Conversion—Batteries, Thermoelectrics and Fuel Cells

http://www.mrs.org/spring-2014-call-for-papers-p/

As advanced energy systems with enhanced conversion efficiencies,
improved storage capacities and better reliabilities are being developed
to meet the global energy needs of the world’s growing population,
mechanics has emerged as one of the key factors that affect the
performance of energy materials. In thermoelectric energy conversion to
harvest sunlight and recover waste heats, thermal stress is a big
concern for reliabilities; and the efficiency and reliability of
photovoltaic materials is similarly affected by both strain and the
presence of mechanical defects. In electric energy storage, the capacity
and cyclic stability of lithium-ion batteries are often limited by
stress and strain induced during ion intercalation and extraction,
despite much higher capacity promised by thermodynamics; and mechanical
deformation has been found to be a key factor that directly impacts the
functionality of capacitors including the so-called quantum
nanocapacitance. The importance of mechanical properties of materials
for renewable energies such as wind and tide energies is also widely
recognized, and the very nature of vibration energy harvesting is
mechanical. It is evident that mechanical issues are universal in all
aspects of energy conversion, storage and harvesting; and mechanics
plays a critical role in the performances of advanced energy materials
and systems.

In the last a few years, rapid advances have been
witnessed in modeling, simulations and characterizations of mechanical
behavior of advanced energy materials and systems. In lithium-ion
batteries, transmission electron microscopy and electrochemical strain
microscopy have enabled direct observation of lithium-ion intercalation
and extraction in-situ with atomic resolution; and ab initio
calculations and phase-field simulations have offered key insights on
kinetics and dynamics of phase transformation in lithium iron phosphate.
In thermoelectrics, novel module design that mitigates thermal stress
has been proposed; and nanostructured materials with advanced interface
engineering and superior thermoelectric figure-of-merit have been
developed. The importance of mechanics in all aspects of energy
conversion, storage and harvesting has become widely recognized; and
tremendous opportunities arise for further understanding of mechanics in
energy materials for superior performance.

This symposium is
intended to bring together experts from materials sciences, mechanics,
chemistry and engineering communities interested in energy conversion,
storage and harvesting to review current state-of-the-art and formulate
the outstanding research needs and grand challenges in mechanics of
advanced energy materials. Interdisciplinary topics will be connected by
invited talks in order to accelerate the fundamental understanding of
these materials toward applications.

Topics will include (but will not be limited to):

• Electrochemical strain of Li-ion batteries and solid-state fuel cells
• Design, analysis, homogenization and optimization of thermoelectrics
• Mechanical issues in solar-energy conversion
• Mechanics of nanocapacitors
• Mechanics of hydrogen-storage materials
• Energy harvesting of mechanical vibrations
• Reliabilities and fatigues of materials for renewable energy
• Radiation damages of materials for nuclear energy
• Advanced characterization techniques on different scales
• Multiscale modeling, simulation and theory of advanced energy materials
• Mechanics-guided material designs and optimizations

Invited speakers include:

Stuart Adler (Univ. of Washington), Nina
Balke (Oak Ridge National Lab),
Long-Qing Chen (Pennsylvania State
Univ.), Yet-Ming Chiang
(Massachusetts Inst.
of Technology), Martin Dunn
(Singapore Univ. of Design and Technology, Singapore), Huajian Gao (Brown Univ.), Laurence Hardwick (Univ. of Liverpool, United Kingdom), Tatsuya Kawada
(Tohoku Univ., Japan), Jing-Feng
Li (Tsinghua Univ., China), Petr Novák (Paul Scherrer Inst.,
Switzerland), Pradeep
Sharma (Univ. of Houston), Jeff Snyder (California Inst. of Technology), Nancy Sottos (Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Zhigang Suo (Harvard Univ.), Mark Verbrugge (General Motors), Junmin
Xue
(National Univ. of Singapore, Singapore), Wenqing
Zhang (Shanghai
Inst. of Ceramics, China).

Symposium Organizers

Jiangyu Li
University of Washington
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Box 352600
Seattle, WA 98195-2600
Tel 206-543-6226, Fax 206-685-8047
jjli@uw.edu

Jake Christensen
Robert Bosch LLC
Research and Technology Center
4005 Miranda Ave., Ste. 200
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Tel 650-320-2927, Fax 650-320-2999
jake.christensen@us.bosch.com

John E. Huber
University of Oxford
Dept. of Engineering Science
Parks Rd.
Oxford OX1 3PJ, United Kingdom
Tel 44-1865-2-83478, Fax 44-1865-2-73010
john.huber@eng.ox.ac.uk

Kaiyang Zeng
National University of Singapore
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Blk. EA 07-36
9 Engineering Dr. 1
Singapore 117576, Singapore
Tel 65-6516 6627, Fax 65-6779 1459
mpezk@nus.edu.sg