SYMPOSIUM 6: Advanced Materials and Technologies for Direct Thermal Energy Conversion and Rechargeable Energy Storage

The significant increases in demand of world energy consumption as well as clean and efficient energy resources have prompted the imperative searches of new materials and technologies. The technologies aiming for clean energy generation with zero-emission will require advances in materials development for electricity generation, as well as efficient and reliable energy storage. This symposium will focus on the advanced engineering ceramics and technologies that could help the global community to achieve the stated goals. It will explore state-of-the-art thermoelectric, thermionic and thermophotovoltaic materials and technologies for direct thermal-to-electrical energy conversion. Material and device designs directed to optimize efficiency and cost/performance aspects of direct thermal-to-electrical conversion will be enlightened with emphasis on tailoring electrical, thermal and optical properties to the demand of applications.

On the other hand, energy storage improvements in materials design, electrodes architecture, electrolytes, separators and cell chemistry are key factors to extend the life, enhance the safety, and lower the cost of rechargeable batteries that are regarded as the most efficient energy storage systems for portable electronics, renewable energy storage, smart grid, and transportation applications. A deeper understanding of the battery materials/property relationship, electrode/electrolyte interface phenomena, and cell failure mechanisms is critically needed to face these challenges. The search for advanced high capacity electrode materials and the implementation of the very challenging lithium sulfur,  lithium-air and sodium-air batteries will be necessary to overcome the energy density shortfall in currently commercial batteries

The symposium will focus on crystal chemistry, structural analysis, materials processing, powder metallurgy, sintering, transport properties, structural and mechanical characterization, new testing methods, cost/performance and reliability issues, commercialization and market prospects related to thermoelectrics and batteries.

Proposed Session Topics

Thermoelectrics:

• New thermoelectric compounds
• Nano-composite and nanostructured thermoelectric materials
• Band structure, phonon calculations, modeling and simulation
• Device design, fabrication, integration and testing
• System simulation and demonstration
• Materials for thermionic and thermovoltaic applications

Batteries

• Advanced anode and cathode materials for lithium batteries
• Materials design, screening, and electrode architectures for lithium batteries
• Diagnostics and materials characterization for lithium batteries
• Electrode/electrolyte interface characterization for lithium batteries
• Applications focused lithium batteries
• Lithium metal-air and lithium-sulphur battery technologies
• Sodium batteries and beyond lithium batteries
• Solid electrolytes for batteries
• All-solid-state batteries
• Materials of capacitive energy storage (super-capacitors)
• Stationary rechargeable batteries for grid, solar, and wind technologies

Symposium Organizers

• Palani Balaya, National University of Singapore, Singapore
• Olivier Guillon, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany
• Dany Carlier, ICMCB, France
• Fei Chen, Wuhan University of Technology, China
• Mickael Dollé, University of Montrael, Canada
• Ryoji Funahashi, AIST, Osaka, Japan
• Emmanuel Guilmeau, CNRS CRISMAT, France
• XiangXin Guo, Qingdao University & Shanghai Institute of Ceramics (CAS), China
• Wei Lai, Michigan State University, USA
• Naoaki Yabuuchi, Tokyo Denki University, Japan
• Won-Sub Yoon, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea

Points of Contact

• Palani Balaya: mpepb@nus.edu.sg
• Olivier Guillon: o.guillon@fz-juelich.de