Interfacial Reactions in Electrochemical Energy Devices: Operando Studies Using Synchrotron X-ray Scattering and Spectroscopy

For electrochemical systems such as batteries and fuel cells, the gas/solid and liquid/solid interfaces are critical parts where many important reactions take place. It is critical to understand the interfacial changes for the better design of efficient energy systems. In the past years we have used various operando synchrotron-based X-ray techniques to study the atomic and electronic structure, chemistry and compositions of numerous electrochemical interfaces in fuel cells, electrolyzers, lithium- and magnesium-batteries. In my talk, I will mainly give two examples. One is our efforts on using operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to study catalyst restructuring in many electrochemical reactions such as oxygen evolution reaction for water splitting and electrochemical CO2 reduction. The second example will be focus on our recent works on aqueous sodium-ion batteries. If time allows. I will also show state-of-the-art instruments at Oregon State University which can be used for several advanced characterizations in lab.

Biography: Zhenxing Feng graduated from Peking University in China with BS in Physics. He obtained MS in Physics from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering of Northwestern University, USA in 2011. Then he spent two years at Mechanical Engineering of MIT for postdoctoral trainings. After working in Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) of Argonne National Lab for 3 years in advanced battery research, he moved to Oregon State University as an assistant professor. He is interested in finding design principles of various materials for energy harvesting, conversion and storage applications.