Dr. Peter Khalifah was the speaker at a chemistry seminar. He teaches at Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory. I won’t lie when I say the concepts that Dr. Khalifah talked about were complex, but they were interesting when he expanded upon them.
The Center for Functional Nanomaterials is a BNL facility that has TEMs, SEMs, (AP-)XPS/spectroscopy, and theory. There is an NSF-funded training program on advanced X-ray characterization of materials (Quantitative Analysis of Dynamic Structures).
The Battery500 Consortium was discussed and its aim is to accelerate deployment of future battery technologies (Li metal anode // NMC cathode, Li metal anode // S cathode), provide direct feedback on composition and properties of materials (aid with materials selection and optimization), diagnose failure mechanisms with spatial and temporal resolution (enable mitigation of failure modes, produce improved lifetimes), and drive validation of whole cell models and improvement of cell designs (maximize capacity and performance of deliverable cells). Thermodynamic relationships between composition and defect concentration in NMC cathodes resolved using novel high-precision powder diffraction methods. Defects in layered NMC cathodes influence ionic and electronic conductivity/phase transitions (material with defects is thermodynamically distinct from ideal material; accurate quantification is essential to determine structure-properties relationships).
Although I am very impressed with everything Dr. Khalifah shared with us, as someone who loves science and is considering a future career in the field, this is not an area of it that I think I would want to follow. I am more interested in the biology and psychology areas which will lead me to the path of study that I hope to pursue – neuroscience.
