Xiangbo Meng’s Research Group
Author: Jase Riales | Major: Mechanical Engineering | Semester: Summer 2023
In the summer semester of my senior year, I met Dr. Xiangbo Meng of the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Arkansas. I met Dr. Meng through his class, Hybrid Electric Vehicles, and quickly discovered the vast and expansive topic of batteries, as well as the largely interesting research surrounding the topic. Lithium-ion Batteries are a relatively new technology that still has much room for improvement and are seeing heaps of advancements as each year passes. For my thesis, I wanted to research NMC 811 as a battery cathode and discover many ways to improve the cathodes performance through various methods.
Batteries in the modern world are critical to everyday life, and as the world progresses, the need for batteries will only become greater. As the need for renewable energy is growing ever prevalent due to global warming and the world dependency on oil, the importance of more cost-efficient batteries, as well as more durable and higher capacity, also grows, as batteries are a critical part to making renewable energy practical. NMC 811 is extremely cheaper than lithium cobalt oxide, while still providing comparable energy capacity. Dr. Meng encouraged me to apply for this grant so I could have the means to explore how to address the one issue with NMC 811 that is preventing it from becoming a commercialized cathode, its durability. Coating the cathode through a process known as ALD, or atomic layer deposition, with varies different material gives various results in terms of cathode performance. Certain organic polymers have been shown to increase not only the durability but also the capacity of the battery at much higher rates.
After collecting my data, I learned various factors can affect the cyclability of the NMC 811 battery, including the charge rate of the battery as well as the different materials used to coat the cathode. Kevin Velasquez, a PHD student under Dr. Meng, guided me through most of the process of making the battery safely and effectively for research purposes, as well as collecting, analyzing, and organizing the data in such a way that it can be interpreted by me and my fellow peers. The data collected from the cycling machines, the machines that charged and discharged the battery until the end of its life, was hard to collect and put into useful data at first and took me quite some time to get used to, but after doing this process a few times, the process got much easier. With the data and analysis of it, I collect that lower charging and discharge rates of the batteries with the NMC 811 cathode have a much higher stability compared to higher charge/discharge rates, and organic polymer coatings that contain lithium provide a much better battery performance in general due to the lithium anode and the shielding properties it has against degradation of the cathode.
The Honors College Research grant helped me get hands on work and research with battery technology and helped me realize that I have a strong passive for this topic. It made my interest in batteries and research with them much stronger, making me want to delve more into research and innovation in the topic. I have realized that my battery research will not stop with my honors thesis, but will continue with me along my life journey, as I am certain this is the path I want to take. I think this topic is very important and interesting, and needs much more attention than it already has, and I am grateful for the Honors College for help guiding me into my future.