Synthetic Control Across Length-scales for Advancing Rechargeables (SCALAR)

A US Department of Energy Energy Frontier Research Center (Class: 2018 — 2022)

Mission

To design materials, interfaces, and architectures that revolutionize the performance of energy storage systems by dramatically expanding the range of materials systems and chemistries that can be employed in next generation batteries.

Research Plan

The SCALAR center aims to rethink battery materials to take advantage of a much broader set of reactions and materials than traditional transition metal cation redox approaches. This is combined with new methods to control and characterize architectures and interfaces with the goal of bridging atomistic and nanometer length-scales in the quest to improve cycling stability and electron and ion transport over broad working ranges.

Leadership

Professor Sarah Tolbert (UCLA) and Professor Bruce Dunn (UCLA)

Research Thrusts

Thrust 1: Anionic redox as a new paradigm for next-generation energy storage

Leader: Brent Melot, USC
Team: Brad Chmelka, Bruce Dunn, Sri Narayan, Kimberly See, Ram Seshadri, Alex Spokoyny, Sarah Tolbert, and Anton Van der Ven

Thrust 2: Increasing electrical conductivity in electrodes without compromising ion mobility

Leader: Ram Seshadri, UC Santa Barbara
Team: Bruce Dunn, Brent Melot, Thomas Miller, Sri Narayan, Laurent Pilon, Rachel Segalman, Barry Thompson, Sarah Tolbert, and Anton Van der Ven

Thrust 3: Stabilizing physical and electrochemical interfaces

Leader: Xiangfeng Duan, UCLA
Brad Chmelka, Bruce Dunn, Jian Luo, Sri Narayan, Philippe Sautet, Kimberly See, Sarah Tolbert, and Johanna Nelson Weker

More about the thrusts

PDF File with further details of Thrust 1

PDF File with further details of Thrust 2

PDF File with further details of Thrust 3

SCALAR EFRC Publications

All Participating Senior Investigators

	Xiangfeng Duan Bruce Dunn Laurent Pilon Philippe Sautet Alex Spokoyny Sarah Tolbert		Brad Chmelka Rachel Segalman Ram Seshadri Anton Van der Ven
	Brent Melot Sri Narayan Barry Thompson		Thomas Miller Kimberly See
	Jian Luo		Johanna Nelson Weker

Gallery

SCALAR EFRC Kick-off Meeting at UCLA, August 2018

All-Hands Meeting at UCLA, December 2018

All-Hands + EAB Meeting at UCLA, April 2019

The SCALAR team at the EFRC Meeting in DC, July 2019

Team Science Prize to the SCALAR team, July 2019

All-Hands Meeting at UC Santa Barbara, September 2019

All PIs at UC Santa Barbara, September 2019

Virtual all-hands + EAB (outlined in red), June 2020

Grace Whang (Dunn laboratory) received a Best Presentation Award at the Fall 2020 MRS (Symposium EN03) for her talk entitled, "Lithium Deposition Underneath Interfacial Coating Layers." Coauthors included Qizhang Yan (Luo group), Da Li and Ziyang Wei (Sautet group), and Danielle Butts (Dunn group).

Virtual all-hands, November 2020

Virtual all-hands with EAB (outlined in red), March 2021

Hybrid (at UCSB) all-hands, Sept 2021

Administration

Huguette Albrecht, Administrative Director, SCALAR EFRC
email: halbrecht at conet dot ucla dot edu +++ phone: 310-825-5125 +++ webspace: http://www.chem.ucla.edu/scalar/