Research on diversified post-lithium battery landscape is strongly emerging, where different chemistries promise optimization for different applications tackling sustainability, cost, energy density, lifespan, and safety issues. This symposium focuses on post-lithium battery technologies: Na, K, multivalent ion and metal batteries, regarding novel battery chemistries, materials discovery, electrochemical mechanistic understanding, interphases and interfaces, high power electrodes and electrolytes, advanced characterization, electrode processing, and cell design. Also, we encourage submissions from both academia and industry partners, to bridge the knowledge gap between the two sectors and spark new ideas and collaborations.
- Post-lithium battery systems (e.g., Na, K, Ca, Mg, Al, hybrid-ion, metal anodes, conversion cathodes, etc.)
- Electrode materials discovery
- Electrolyte design (including organic, aqueous, and ionic liquid)
- Interfacial processes and engineering, including solid-state considerations
- Charge storage mechanisms
- Advanced characterization (e.g., in situ, operando)
- Modelling, machine learning and AI-guided electrode/electrolyte development
- Battery materials manufacturing and electrode processing
Dr Yang Xu is an Associate Professor in Energy Storage in the Department of Chemistry at University College London (UCL). He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He carried out his postdoctoral research at Boston College (US) and the University of Alberta (Canada) and then worked as a Senior Scientist at Technical University of Ilmenau (Germany). He joined the Department of Chemistry at University College London (UCL) as an Assistant Professor in 2019 and became an Associate Professor in 2023. He is leading a team at UCL Chemistry working on next-generation battery materials and chemistries, particularly potassium-based, focusing on high energy density cathode materials, cation intercalation mechanism, metal anodes, and anionic redox activity. He has had nearly 90 publications in internationally leading journals including J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Joule, Matter, Nat. Commun., Energy Environ. Sci., Adv. Mater., etc. He has received research fundings from various funders including the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Faraday Institution, the Royal Society (RS), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Leverhulme Trust, and UCL. He was awarded the MINE Outstanding Young Scientist Award (2019), the RS Short Industry Fellowship (2020) and the STFC Early Career Award (2023). He serves as a member of the editorial boards of JPhys. Energy (IOPP) and ACS Appl. Energy Mater. (ACS), the advisory boards of J. Mater. Chem. A and Mater. Adv. (RSC), and the youth editorial boards of Sci. China Mater. (Springer) and eScience (Elsevier).