Join us for the second in our series of joint impact events between the School of Engineering and WMG. This seminar will explore outreach and engagement bringing together speakers from across the university who together will share their experiences, insights, and guidance. There will also be a chance to consider opportunities for taking part, for example in British Science Week in March, and in student work placements as part of the widening participation agenda.

This seminar will take place on Wednesday 01 February 2023. The session will help academics gain familiarity around outreach and engagement. This seminar is aimed at researchers at all career stages. We hope to see you there.

Take control of your tariff and reduce your energy consumption now.

Our Net Zero Innovation Event doesn’t just talk about problems, we are here to provide practical and impactful advice on how to reduce your energy consumption now.

Join Prof Louis Piper (WMG) as he delivers an invited seminar titled “How Goodenough is the Ionic approximation of redox in layered oxide Li-ion battery cathodes”.

Everyone is welcome to attend, so please find his abstract and bio below.

Abstract: The 3d transition metal layered oxides derived from LiCoO₂ are critical components of our lithium-ion battery technology. Simply put, the Co and Ni ions are expected to oxidize to formal 4+ configurations when all the lithium is extracted upon charging. This is based on simple electron counting within crystal field if the oxygen ions remain formally O^2-. In real Li-ion batteries, the layered oxides are never fully delithiated during cycling because of degradation (oxygen loss) issues at high states of charge i.e. above 50% of lithium extraction. As a result, the ionic approximation has proven Goodenough (pun intended) to date. However, the push to increase energy densities by suppressing degradation has led to more attention on the redox mechanisms at high states of charge. In addition, lithium excess compounds have demonstrated capacities that cannot be accounted from by formal metal oxidation and indicate oxygen can participate in the charge compensation.

At WMG, we have led the integration of state-of-the-art Ni-rich Li-ion battery manufacturing of industry-relevant formats with advanced x-ray characterization. Here, I will summarize our work connecting a suite of x-ray characterization (including in-house operando EXAFS) revealing how the oxygen ions facilitate the charge compensation even in conventional layered oxides. These studies are supported by beyond density functional theory (DMFT) methods for spectroscopic simulations that reproduce our spectral observations. These findings revise the description of oxygen redox and explain why these systems suffer from accelerated oxygen loss at high states of charge.

Bio: Louis Piper is Professor of Battery Innovation and heads the Electrochemical Materials group in the Energy Directorate at WMG. He co-leads the renewed Faraday Degradation project with Prof. Clare Gray, along with leading the Faraday cell builds project upscaling new cathode materials from FutureCat consortium into real formats to improve perfomance within the Degradation Project. He has published over 175 papers (h index = 56) and was recently interviewed on BBC 2 “Secret Genius of Modern Life”. Louis did his PhD in surface Physics at Warwick University (2006) before moving stateside. First as beamline contact scientist for Boston University at NSLS, BNL (2006-2010) and then as faculty at State University of New York, Binghamton (Assistant Professor to Full professor, 2010-2020) where he worked alongside Nobel Laureate Prof. M. Stanley Whittingham on several projects (most notably NECCES). He returned to Warwick in 2020. With hindsight, he would not recommend moving in a pandemic.

Learn more about our part-time MSc in Engineering Business LeadershipLink opens in a new window and how this course could fit around your existing role at our upcoming Virtual Open Day. Hear from our academic and support staff involved in the programme and ask any questions you may have about the course and part-time study.