This symposium will focus on the fundamental and applied aspects of interface engineering and transport phenomena in next generation sustainable battery systems. As battery technologies evolve beyond lithium ion towards sodium ion, solid state and emerging chemistries, interfacial processes and mass transport increasingly govern performance, lifetime and safety. The symposium aims to bring together researchers working on electrode–electrolyte interfaces, charge and ion transport, and microstructure design to address key challenges in efficiency and durability. Contributions are invited on advanced characterisation techniques, operando studies, modelling of transport processes, and the design of materials and architectures that enable controlled local environments. Particular emphasis will be placed on sustainable materials, scalable processing, and strategies to enhance resource efficiency. The programme will provide a platform for discussing how interfacial and transport engineering can accelerate the development of practical, high performance and environmentally responsible battery technologies.
- Interface engineering in batteries
- Ion and charge transport mechanisms
- Electrode-electrolyte interactions
- Sodium ion and beyond lithium batteries
- Operando characterisation and diagnostics
- Microstructure and architecture design
- Modelling of transport and reaction processes
- Sustainable and low critical material systems
Dr. Camélia Matei Ghimbeu is a Research Director at Material Science Institute in Mulhouse (IS2M), CNRS, France. She received in 2007 her PhD from University of Metz, France and TU Delft, The Netherlands and her Habilitation in 2015 from University of Haute Alsace, France. She was awarded in 2017 the CNRS Bronze Medal, in 2018 the Award "Solid-State Chemistry Division" (French Chemistry Society) and in 2019 the award Guy Ourisson (Gutenberg Cercle), for her research works devoted to the design of carbon-based materials with controlled characteristics for energy storage and environmental applications. Author of more than 100 articles and about 150 communications, she is leading the “Carbon and Hybrid Materials” group at IS2M, and she is member of French network of Electrochemical Storage of Energy (RS2E).
Prof. Nithyadharseni Palaniyandy is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Catalysis and Energy Solutions (ICES), University of South Africa (UNISA). Her research focuses on the development of advanced electrode materials for energy storage applications, including secondary-ion batteries, battery material recycling and reuse, and supercapacitors, with an emphasis on sustainable energy storage technologies and circular-economy approaches.
Marcus studied chemistry at Hanover University and graduated in 1999 with a diploma thesis in the field of solid-state electrochemistry. Within his PhD thesis at Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) he focused on the interaction of low temperature plasmas and oxygen ion conductors. During his PhD, he spent several research stays at Imperial College in London (UK) in the group of Prof. John Kilner and learned secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). After a short postdoc stay with Prof. Tatsuya Kawada in the materials science department at Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan) he took over in 2005 a permanent position as research officer at JLU Giessen. Here he built up a SIMS laboratory at the Institute for Physical Chemistry and is heading the laboratory since 20 years. Marcus´ research work is dedicated to reactions and diffusion in materials and at materials interfaces. This covers a broad field from bone to battery materials research. He is PI in the German cluster of excellence Post Lithium-Ion Storage (POLIS). Here his research focuses mainly on the hard carbon electrode in Na ion batteries. Marcus is an adjunct professor for physical chemistry at JLU Giessen. He is coauthor of more than 130 publications in per reviewed journals, two patents and one book chapter.
Ozlem Sel joined “Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)” as a principle investigator in 2011, and currently working at the “Solid-State Chemistry and Energy Lab (CSE)” at College de France, Paris. Her research interests include piezoelectric sensors employed in junction with electrochemical analysis, for a real-time monitoring of the interfacial processes occurring in energy storage devices.
She has obtained her Ph.D. degree in materials chemistry at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, in Germany (2007), on the synthesis, characterization and applications of hierarchically porous metal oxides, under the supervision of Prof. Markus Antonietti. Following her Ph.D. degree, she moved to France, joined the group of Prof. Clement Sanchez (LCMCP, Sorbonne University-UPMC, 2007-2009) as a post-doctoral researcher, focusing on the nanostructured hybrid materials and their characterization for energy conversion devices. In the period of 2010-2011, she was at the UC-Davis (group of Prof. Alexandra Navrotsky), USA within a framework of Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) program. Prior joining the CSE lab at the Collège de France, she has worked at “Laboratory of Interfaces and Electrochemical Systems, CNRS” and obtained her research habilitation at the Sorbonne University, Paris.
Through these years, she has developed an expertise in nanostructured energy materials and electrochemistry, as well as operando methods for surface and interface characterization. She is particularly interested in EQCM and its coupling with EIS, and has been actively working on, already more than 15 years.
Rui TanRui Tan is a senior lecturer across the departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Swansea university. He earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, specializing in material engineering and electrochemical engineering to tackle environmental and energy storage challenges. After his PhD, he worked as a Research Associate at Imperial College until 2023, and then joined the University of Warwick as an Assistant Professor.
After receiving BEng from Central South University, he established his track record at renowned institutions including Peking University (2014-2017), Imperial College London (2017-2023), the University of Warwick (2023-2024) and Swansea University (2024-present), engineering materials and developing energy storage systems such as high-energy and electron-rich energy materials (e.g., FeS2, Li2FeSiO4), safe and high-temperature solid-state batteries, the first hydrophilic selective PIM membranes for long-life flow batteries, and scalable carbon-based current collectors for 5Ah and 10Ah non-flammable batteries. He has authored >60 peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals such as Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Chemical Engineering, Energy & Environmental Science, Joule, Angewandte Chemie, JACS, Advanced Materials, Advanced Energy Materials, Nature Communications, Advanced Science, Nano Energy.
Dr. Tan was awarded the Townend Prize at Imperial College and was part of the Functional Membrane and Energy Materials Group (Imperial College), which received the 2023 Materials Chemistry Horizon Prize: Stephanie L Kwolek Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is MRSC, the member of the European Membrane Society, Early Career member of the Electrochemical Society. He is the editorial board member of Discover Electrochemistry, the Academic Editor of Chain (IEEE), the early-career editorial board member of Energy Materials, Rare Metals and Battery Energy.
Dr. Tan is currently serving as a mentor for the Windsor Fellowship program (Destination STEMM-John Lyons programme with the Royal Society).