Education

B.S., Chemical Engineering (2012)
Stanford University

Research Project: Modeling Performance Degradation and Lifetimes of NCA/graphite Batteries in Space Applications

Research Summary:

There are many mechanisms that contribute to the worsening performance of batteries, including those of the Li-ion chemistry. Several of these mechanisms are known, but have yet to be used to predictively determine the performance lifetime of a battery before it has been built.

Several intermediate goals exist for this project which should ultimately result in a model capable of predicting the performance characteristics and lifetime of a battery based on a range of parameters including operating temperature, pressure, size, geometry, and depth of discharge, among others.

While the experimentation and modeling will be based on the NCA/graphite chemistry, another goal of the project is to generalize the results to other Li-ion battery chemistries. This work will have profound implications in the battery industry, as manufacturers will be able to build batteries for specific applications while minimizing testing time before production.