Graduate
Seminar Series
3
01
2
2
201
The Department of
Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics
Proudly Presents
Dr. Ilias Belharouak
Materials Scientist Leader and Energy Storage Expert
Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division
Argonne National Laboratory
Dr. Ilias Belharouak is a Materials Scientist Leader and Energy Storage
Expert in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division at Argonne
National Laboratory, Illinois, USA. He published over 200 peer-reviewed
publications, papers at professional society meetings, and patents. He is a
reviewer for several international journals in the field of electrochemistry,
batteries, and materials physics and chemistry. Dr. Belharouak was
recognized with several awards including R&D-100 awards, Pacesetter
awards, and Federal and State Laboratory Consortium Awards. Dr.
Belharouak holds Ph.D. and Master’s Degrees in Materials Science from the
Institute for Solid State Chemistry, National Center for Scientific Research, University Bordeaux 1,
France; and a Bachelor’s Degree in Inorganic Chemistry, University Cadi Ayyad, Morocco.
Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012
4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Room 112, ME-EM Bldg.
Lithium Batteries: Current State and Beyond
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries were first commercialized by Sony in early 90’s. The high cost of
cobalt and relatively low specific capacity of LiCoO2 (140Ah/kg) have been major obstacles against
the application of these batteries in transportation where the battery energy density should significantly
increase to meet the goals for plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), and essentially for electric vehicles
(EVs). Also, despite the abundance of iron and manganese, olivine LiFePO4 and spinel LiMn2O4 will
not likely be adequate candidates since neither of them can provide enough gravimetric and volumetric
energy densities for transportation applications. Therefore, research groups have been under the
challenge of inventing and developing new advanced positive electrode materials whose main
characteristics is to store more and more electricity per mass and volume. Of these materials, advanced
composite materials were found to deliver a high reversible capacity (250Ah/kg) while being
structurally and electrochemically stable upon charge and discharge. These thermally stable materials
are considered as potential candidates to surmount the energy density shortfall of current lithium ion
batteries. The journey for materials design and discovery will be unveiled in the light of the most
recent developments in lithium-ion batteries. Also, the implementation of the very challenging lithiumsulfur and lithium-air batteries will be discussed.
Funding for the ME-EM Graduate Seminar Series is provided by the Department of Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics
http://blogs.mtu.edu/mechanical/category/seminars/