Keynote Speaker
Biography
Prof. Yi-Chun Lu received her Ph.D. degree from MIT in 2012. She is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). She serves as the Associate Editor of Journal of Materials Chemistry A and Materials Advances from Royal Society of Chemistry. She is Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, Founding Member of Young Academy of Science of Hong Kong and was the recipient of RGC Research Fellow 2022, Xplorer Prize 2021, IBA Early Career Award 2021, Excellent Young Scientists, National Natural Science Foundation of China (2019), Young Researchers Award (2016), and Hong Kong SAR Research Grants Council Early Career Award (2014). Dr. Lu's research interest centers on developing fundamental understandings and material design principles for clean energy storage and conversion. Specifically, her research group is studying: Electrode and electrolyte design for high-energy metal-air and metal sulfur batteries; Redox-active components and solution chemistry for redox-flow batteries; Electrode and electrolyte design for high-voltage aqueous batteries; Mechanistic understanding of interfacial phenomena governing electrochemical energy conversion and storage processes.
Material Designs for High-Performance Aqueous Redox Flow Batteries
Yi-Chun LU
Abstract
Energy storage system is a critical enabling factor for deploying unstable and intermittent renewable power sources, such as solar and wind power sources. Non-aqueous lithium ion batteries dominate the battery markets owing to its high energy density. However, they are flammable, which could bring catastrophic damages in large-scale applications. Aqueous redox flow battery (RFB) is one of the most competitive technologies for scalable, safe and long-duration energy storage owing to its design flexibility in power and energy. All-vanadium RFB is the most well-established chemistry, but its widespread deployments are hindered by the low abundance and high cost of vanadium. Aqueous polysulfide electrolyte has been extensively studied as a low-cost and high-capacity electrolyte for RFBs owing to its high earth abundance and low material cost. However, they are limited by crossover and sluggish kinetics. In this presentation, we will discuss strategies to improve polysulfide redox flow batteries and it’s future perspectives.
Acknowledgment
This work is supported by two grants from the Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (project no. RFS2223-4S03, CUHK 14308622)