EECS/CASE Colloquium

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Sustainable Energy: Batteries, Solar Cells, Sensors based on Nano- and Micro-Fabrication

Quinn Qiao, PH.D.

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

Abstract: Lithium metal anodes are expected to drive practical applications that require high energy‐density storage. However, direct use of metallic lithium causes safety concerns, low-rate capabilities, and poor cycling performance due to unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and undesired lithium dendrite growth. This talk will focus on the development of novel energy storage materials such as effective and robust solid-electrolyte interface (SEI) materials for high capacity li-metal batteries. New nanofabrication methods including plasma enhanced deposition of Li₃N and radio frequency sputtered graphite‐SiO₂ ultrathin bilayer on Li metal chips are discussed as effective solid-electrolyte interface (SEI) layers. These lead to a dendrite free uniform Li deposition to achieve a stable voltage profile and outstanding long hours plating/stripping compared to the bare Li. In addition, innovative energy conversion materials such as active light harvesting perovskite materials, hole transport materials, and electron transport materials for efficient solar energy utilization are presented. Nano- and micro-fabrication for batteries, solar cells, and biosensors will also be discussed.

Bio: Dr. Qiao is currently a professor at Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department and also an affiliate professor at Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at Syracuse University. He is founder for Fastsol Power, Inc, a start-up company to commercialize batteries and their intrinsic integration with photovoltaics for sustainable energy generation and electric vehicles. He is site director for NSF IUCRC Center for Solid State Electric Power Storage (CEPS). He has also been working on nano- and micro-fabrication for batteries, solar cells, and biosensors. His current research focuses on energy conversion (e.g., photovoltaics), energy storage (e.g., lithium metal batteries), sensors, food-energy-water (FEW) sustainability and precision agriculture technologies. He has published more than 200 peer reviewed papers in leading journals including Science, Nature Communications, Energy and Environmental Science, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Advanced Materials, Advanced Energy Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Nanoscale, Joule, ACS Energy Letters, Nano Energy, IEEE Sensors Journal, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, IEEE Electron Device Letters, etc. He has received more than $12M on research grants as PI or Co-PI from NSF, NASA, USAID, EDA, 3M, Agilent, Raven Industries, Sanford Health, etc. He has more than 10,300 citations on google scholar and a H-index of 55.