Imperial College London

DrMonicaMarinescu

Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Mechanical Engineering

Reader
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 7091monica.marinescu Website

 
 
//

Location

 

722Mechanical EngineeringSouth Kensington Campus

//

Summary

 

PhD research

I obtained my PhD in Physical Chemistry from the Chemistry Department in Imperial College London, in the group of Prof. Alexei Kornyshev. My research focused on the theoretical description of the properties of and phenomena taking place at the electrolyte-electrolyte and electrolyte-electrode interfaces, for applications such as electrowetting, electro-variable liquid lenses and mirrors, and nanoplasmonics.

For published work on this topic, see my publications.

Lithium sulfur batteries

show research

Lithium sulfur is one of the most promising technologies for future batteries, with the possibility of achieving much higher energy density per volume than the Li-ion technology. LiS batteries are already used for Airbus's UAV Zephyr, and are considered for use in ultra-cold climates and space missions. There are, however, a number of challenges that need to be surmounted, in order for this technology to reach its full potential. It suffers from significant self discharge, which also leads to a decrease in capacity with use, and relatively low charge and discharge rates.

My work on this topic was funded under the EPSRC Revolutionary Electric Vehicle Battery project (EP/L505298/1), and was a collaboration with Oxis Energy, Cranfield University and Ricardo PLC.

Published work

Marinescu, M., Zhang, T., & Offer, G. J. (2016). A zero dimensional model of lithium-sulfur batteries during charge and discharge. PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS, 18(1), 584-593.

Here we develop the first model of a LiS cell that can simulate behaviour during both charge and discharge and accounts for precipitation/dissolution and kinetic limitations. It shows that, contrary to what was believed, different reaction paths are not needed for charge and discharge in order to obtain the observed behaviour. You can download the Matlab code, released as Supplementary Material to the publication. This article is part of a collection of top 50 most downloaded PCCP articles in its year.

 


Presentations

Improving performance of Li-S cells in real conditions, a model-informed approach, LiSM3, February 2017, London

Lithium ion batteries

show research

To be continued

Lithium ion supercapacitors

show research

to be continued

Supercapacitors

show research

to be continued