Dan Steingart: Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Seminar Series

About this event

Title

Of Density and Destiny: Listening, and Really Listening, to Batteries

Abstract

The conservation of mass and charge within a closed-form electrochemical energy cell (”battery”) is fundamental to our standing of chemical transport and reaction kinetics within a system. Since the volume of a battery must be constrained (though not necessarily conserved), the density and its distribution in the evolving battery encode state information about the system. In this talk, I will discuss our group’s efforts to understand these changes and to leverage this perspective to resolve battery state of charge, state of health, chemo-structural evolution, and reaction heterogeneity.

Background

Steingart joined Columbia Engineering in 2019 from Princeton University, where he was an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Earlier, he was an assistant professor in chemical engineering at the City College of the City University of New York. He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2006.

His group studies the systematic behaviors of material deposition, conversion and dissolution in electrochemical reactors with a focus on energy storage devices. His current research looks to exploit traditional failure mechanisms and unwanted interactions in batteries, turning unwanted behaviors into beneficial mechanisms. Over the last decade, his efforts in this area have been adopted by various industries and have led directly or indirectly to five electrochemical energy-related startup companies, the latest being Feasible, an effort dedicated to exploiting the inherent acoustic responses of closed electrochemical systems.

The Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Seminar Series features scholars from a wide range of peer institutions across the country. The events are open to all faculty, staff and students looking to spark their curiosity and learn about high-impact research from some of the world's most prominent experts in mechanical engineering.