PhD Student: Tianhui Jiang

The aim of my project is to develop a ceramic composite anode material with high capacity and fast lithium ion conduction path for energy storage devices. The project includes the design of thermally responsive ceramic slurries for robotic assisted 3D printing and pH responsive slurries for gel casting. So that fabrication of composite with designed ink can be achieved. Structures and properties of designed material will be studied by applying a range of characterization techniques (rheology test, electron microscopy…).

On the other hand, functionalization of lithium ion conducting particles will be studied to optimize the microstructure of the composite. Super paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles will be coated onto the particle surface to make them responsive to magnetic field. Hence, magnetic templating can be used to modify the microstructure of anode material to achieve the fast lithium ion conduction in anode with high capacity by aligning the conducting particles in material matrix.

The final goal is to develop designs and manufacturing processes that will lead to a new generation of more efficient energy storage devices.