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EMI-Lab news
EMI-Lab news
Great News! Prof. Chuan-Fu Lin received 3-year (2023 Aug-2026 Aug) awarded support ($637k) from the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Science (BES) with the title "Understanding Solid-Solution-Reaction vs. Solid-Phase-Transformation Competition of Complex Conversion Materials Dominated by Interfacial Kinetics" to unveil the interfacial kinetics of conversion materials.
2025. 8. Roya's and Odalys' work "Enhancing lithium metal batteries with a nano-silicon nitride-based solid electrolyte interface layer" has been published in RSC Advances. Using high coverage, thin nano-silicon nitride can 8x the lifetime of sodium metal. Odalys, the co-first author, was the undergraduate student working in the lab with Roya, who contributed significantly in the work. Nice job!
2025.8. Six talented group members from EMI-Lab attended ACS annual meeting in Washington DC. We delivered two oral presentations (Roya and Amrit) and four poster presentations (Binh, Sukanya, Sneha) on the developments and study in sodium battery, sulfide glass solid electrolytes, FeF3 conversion cathodes, Li-metal protection works.
2025. 6. Our work "Oversaturated Li-FeOF solid solutions developed using LiPON interfacial coating" with our collaborators from UMD and Argonne National Laboratory has been published in Materials Advances. This work utilized synchrotron facility to reveal the delay in conversion reaction (phase separation) to form supercooled (oversaturaed) Li-FeOF solid solution due to interfacial coating"
2025. 6. Prof. Lin is invited to deliver poster presentation at the EERE-VTO annual project merit review session to showcase our DOE-BES supported project at Crystal city, VA. Four members from EMI-Lab attended the meeting. We enjoyed the great discussion and interaction with the colleagues in the VTO and energy storage communities. What a great event!!
2025 Summer - Emily Cheng (UMD-chemistry undergraduate) join EMI-Lab as a summer intern to conduct research in polymer-ceramics hybrid protection layer and solid electrolyte development for Na-metal batteries. She also synthesized FeOF nanoparticles using high-energy ball-milling.
2025. 5. Binh successfully passed his proposal defense. Another milestone of PhD study accomplished. Congratulations, Binh. Great job!
2024. 11. Binh's work "Highly Effective Polyacrylonitrile-Rich Artificial Solid-Electrolyte-Interphase for Dendrite-Free Li-Metal/Solid-State Battery" has been published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. The PAN-rich ASEI enhanced 6x of the life-time of Li metal anode. Also, it stablized the Li-LGPS-Li solid-state interfaces with extended cycling and reduced overpotential (undesired interfacial reaction). Great work! Congratulations to Binh and the team.
2024. 11. EMI-Lab added new additions to our electrochemical characterization capabities. We acquired EL-CELL in-operando XRD and Raman cells, which allows us to investigate the phase evolution during phase separation process upon conversion reaction. Look forward to applying this novel research approach to our projects and the outcomes from it.
2024. 11. EMI-Lab invited Prof. Siddhartha Das from University of Maryland to visit and give a very nice seminar. We look forward to the great collaboration between two groups.
Photo with EMI-Lab group members
Photo with ME department faculty
2024. 10. Roya's paper "Highly uniform nitride-rich artificial solid electrolyte interphase enabled by nano-silicon nitride for superior performance in advanced sodium metal batteries" has been published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Congratulations, Roya. The work continue to develop novel strategy for extended long-life sodium metal batteries - a 5.5 times better life time demonstrated. Great work! Congratulations to Roya and the team.
2024.9. Dr. Lin attended "Beyond Lithium Ion Battery Technology" conference to present EMI-Lab's current research. Dr. Lin met 2019 Nobel Laureate Sir Stanley Whittingham (Chemistry) to share ideas about Na-ion batteries and advanced battery technologies.
2024. 8. EMI-Lab welcomes Sukanya and Sneha joining us as first-year graduate students in the group to start their exciting journey at CUA, working on projects supported by the Department of Energy.
EMI group - Fall 2024 - Left to Right: Roya, Mojgan, Sukanya, Sneha, CFL, and Binh.
2024. 8 Dr. Lin attended DOE-BES Material Chemistry 2024 PI meeting @ Gaithersburg, Maryland. It is a great opportunity to showcase our research and to learn about the exciting projects in the program.
2024. 7. EMI-Lab 2024 Summer outing @ black hill regional part - a wonderful day for BBQ and boating!
2024. 6. EMI-Lab is now equipped with an integrated ALD-glovebox system. Anric Inc. engineer visited and helped setup the integrated system. The integrated ALD system allows us to coat ALD thin films on air-sensitive materials, such as Li, Na metals and sulfide-based solid electrolytes and so on without air exposure. This unique setup expands the capability of our research in the battery and thin film research fields.
2024. 6. EMI-Lab welcomes John Soria (ME, Junior) and Odalys Campos (Chemistry, junior) joining the research lab for undergraduate summer research.
2024. 5. EMI- team members attended 245th ECS conference at San Francisco, CA. Dr. Chuan-Fu Lin chaired the "Sodium Battery" session. Roya Damircheli gave a talk titled "A01-0018 - Advanced Hybrid Polymer/Ceramic PEO-SnF2 Protective Mechanism for Sodium Metal Anodes", and Binh Hoang gave a talk titled "A02-0333 - Polymerized Acrylonitrile Artificial SEI for Long-Life Li-Metal Battery and Enhanced Stability for Li/Li10GeP2S12 Interface" Well done! Great representation of CUA in the battery community.
EMI-Lab members - left to right: Binh Hoang, CFL, Amrit Kafle, Roya Damircheli.
2024. 5. Dr. Chuan-Fu Lin receives the 2024 Charles H. Kaman Award For Research Excellence. It is an honor for the whole EMI team for conducting great research in the field of battery technology and materials innovation.
2024. 5. EMI-Lab welcomes Mojgan Rahmani joining the research group as a visiting scholar.
2024. 4. Binh gave his first conference talk at the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in Seattle titled "Polymerized Acrylonitrile Artificial SEI for Long-Life Li-Metal Battery and Enhanced Stability for Li/Li10GeP2S12 Interface".
2024. 4 Binh and Roya presented their research at 2024 CUA Research Day.
2024. 4. EMI-Lab welcomes Dr. Amrit Kafle joining our research group as a postdoctoral researcher. His research focuses on develop novel garnet-based and glass-based solid-state electrolytes.
2024. 4. Roya successfully passed her proposal defense - reaching another milestone for her PhD study. Thanks to her committees - Prof. Solares, Prof. Abot, and Prof. Luo.
2024. 2. Our visitor, Prof. Vinoth Kumr Ponnusamy, from Kaoshiung Medical University, Taiwan visited EMI-Lab and gave a nice seminar.
2023. 11 Roya's paper "Fluorinated Artificial Solid–Electrolyte–Interphase Layer for Long-Life Sodium Metal Batteries" has been published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. Congratulations, Roya. Great work on developing 3.5 times longer life Sodium metal electrodes!
2023. 09 Binh's paper "From Amorphous to Crystalline Thin-Film FeF3 Conversion Electrodes by Sputtering Deposition" has been published in ACS Applied Energy Materials. Congratulations, Binh. Great Work!
EMI-group is celebrating Binh's first "first-author" publication in a Vietnamese restaurant.
Binh's work on sputtering FeF3 conversion electrodes in ACS Applied Energy Materials
2023. 08 ***Recruiting*** We have one PhD graduate student position opening in EMI-Lab (Fall 2023). We are looking for experienced, self-motivated researchers to join the group. Experience specifically in the fields of electrochemistry, energy storage, atomic layer deposition, and thin film processing is highly preferred. More info...
2023 Spring and Summer - Undergraduate students Madison Brausch and Nhi Nguyen joined EMI-Lab to work on solid-state battery development.
2023. 04 Roya and Binh gave oral presentations, and Nour gave a poster presentation in 2023 CUA Research Day.
Roya presented her work on developing Fluorine-based protective layer for Na metal.
Binh presented the work on the development of the sputtered thin film of FeF3 conversion cathode.
Nour presented the work on the development of LLZO solid electrolytes.
EMI-Lab and the team
2023. 03. New Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) has arrived EMI-Lab. This new addition gives us capability to develop novel thin films for battery and semiconductor applications.
2022.09. The work "Differentiating chemical and electrochemical degradation of lithium germanium thiophosphate and the role of atomic layer deposited protection layers" has been published in Materials Advances." Binh's co-authored paper with colleagues at the University of Maryland, College Park. Congratulations!
Poster presentation on the synthesis of FeF3 conversion cathode @ 2022 CUA research day.
Poster presentation from EMI-team. Left to Right: CFL, Binh Hoang, Roya Damircheli
2022. 03. Our PhD students - Binh Hoang and Nour Alsharif completed their PhD comprehensive exam! Good Luck!
2022. 02. The construction of EMI-Lab has been done. Ar-filled glovebox has arrived and been installed. The lab is fully functioning now!! We are ready to move the battery technology forward.
Ar-filled glovebox for battery materials fabrication and assembly
Fumehood & Hot press tool for solid electrolyte fabrication
Battery testing station
HT-furnace
EMI-Lab @ CUA
2021. 10. Our PhD student - Roya Damircheli successfully passed her PhD comprehensive Exam. Congratulations, Roya.
2021. 05. The work "Ion‐Conducting, Electron‐Blocking Layer for High Performance Solid Electrolytes" has been published in Small Structures.
2021. 03. The work "Al2O3 Thin Films on Magnesium: Assessing the Impact of an Artificial Solid Electrolyte Interphase" has been published in Frontiers in Energy Research.
2021. 01. The work "Hot and Cold Pressed LGPS Solid Electrolytes" has been published in Journal of Electrochemical Society." It is Binh's first co-authored paper with our colleagues at the University of Maryland, College Park. Congratulations!
2020.07 The work "Suppressing Hydrogen Evolution at Catalytic Surfaces in the Aqueous Lithium Ion Batteries" is published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. We applied ultrathin Al2O3 by ALD to suppress the undesired hydrogen formation at low potential at LTO anode interface with aqueous electrolytes.
2020. 05 Prof. Lin serves as the Associate Editor for a special collection " Thin Film Technology for Advanced Energy Storage Systems" for Frontiers in Energy Research.
2020. 04 The work "Mg2+ ion-catalyzed polymerization of 1,3-dioxolane in battery electrolytes" was published in Chemical Communications.
2020.03 The work "Li-Containing Organic Thin Film - Structure of Lithium Propane Dioxide via Molecular Layer Deposition" was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C.
2020. 02 Prof. Lin attended Gordon Research Conference (GRC) - Battery at Ventura, CA to present the work " Thin Film Solutions for Next-Generation Energy Storage."
2020. 02 Prof. Lin and our collaborators Prof. Rubloff (UMD) and Prof. Qi (MSU) received an collaborative award from National Science Foundation (NSF) .
2020. 01 Roya Damircheli, our PhD student, joined EMI-Lab to start her study at CUA. Welcome, Roya!
2019. 12 Prof. Lin's commentary on Scientific American titled "The Challenge of Replacing Internal Combustion with Batteries that Don't Combust" is published.
2019. 11 Nour and Binh start working on energy-storage experiments (as their master theses) at UMD with our collaborators - Emily Hitz (from Profs. Hu's and Rubloff's groups) and Yang Wang (from Prof. Lee's group) - Nour is focusing on developing solid state electrolytes, and Binh is focusing on developing Na-metal batteries.
2019. 10 Welcome master students - Binh Hoang and Nour Alsharif, join EMI-Lab.
2019. 09 EMI-Lab and website established
2019. 08 Prof. Lin moves from UMD to CUA
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