Past Event: Multiscale Engineering, Mathematics and Sciences Seminar

Learning the Physics of Li-ion Batteries from Images

Dr. Martin Bazant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Abstract

Theoretical physics has traditionally relied on human intelligence to discover the laws of nature.  Artificial intelligence is beginning to challenge this paradigm, but still struggles to learn any physical “laws” valid far beyond the training dataset.  This talk presents a hybrid approach of solving PDE-constrained inverse problems to learn electrochemical physics directly from image data.  From x-ray images of lithium iron phosphate nanoparticles during battery cycling, we learn the free energy landscape of the material, the reaction kinetics of coupled ion-electron transfer, and the nanoscale profile of surface reactivity (correlated with carbon coating thickness). From optical images of graphite anodes during fast charging, we learn the dynamics of staging phase transformations and the conditions for parasitic lithium plating.  Incorporating this knowledge in multiphase porous electrode theory (MPET) enables predictive simulations of Li-ion batteries, which can be used to optimize of fast-charging protocols and formation cycling for extended battery lifetime.

Biography

Martin Z. Bazant is the E. G. Roos (1944) Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering and Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  After a Ph.D. in Physics at Harvard (1997), he joined the MIT faculty in Mathematics (1998) and then Chemical Engineering (2008), where he served as Executive Officer from 2016 to 2020.  His awards include the Kuznetsov Prize in Theoretical Electrochemistry (ISE), the Acrivos Award in Chemical Engineering (AIChE), and the MITx Prize for Teaching in Massive Open Online Courses.  He also serves as President of the International Electrokinetics Society, Director of Data-Driven Design of Rechargeable Batteries (D3BATT), Director of the Center for Battery Sustainability, Chief Scientific Advisor for Saint Gobain Research North America, and Chief Scientist for Lithios, an MIT startup company he co-founded to develop Advanced Lithium Extraction from brines using electrochemistry.