New paper form Neel out now! Neel and his collaborators systematically analyzed the effect of added salt on a miscible polymer blend electrolyte system, calculated thermodynamic interaction parameters, and created a model for blends phase behavior. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…

A new paper out in collaboration with Chao Fang from Rui Wang's group! We do MD simulations to understand the molecular origins of the high transference number of poly(pentyl malonate) #electrolytes compared to poly(ethylene oxide). Read it here: doi.org/10.1021/acsmac…

New paper out from Neel! In this paper Neel and his collaborators created a comprehensive phase diagram for PEO/PMMA/LiTFSI blend electrolyte and compared the results to model predictions. Read it here: pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.10…

my final (I think? I hope?) paper from my time with the Balsara Lab was published today in JES from IOP Publishing! Learn how Jackie and Pallab were able to model local current density during Li plating/stripping all from 3D X-ray tomography: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.114…

Check out this new article Frontiers - Chemistry spearheaded by Balsara Lab on the microstructure and electrochemical properties of polymer-ceramic architectures. There's eye candy: look for the TEM pictures of ceramic "beads" embedded in polymer domains! frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

Great work Morgan Seidler !

Don't miss this podcast featuring Berkeley Chemistry PhD alum (Balsara Lab) and UW–Madison assistant professor Whitney Loo!

So proud of my friend and ⁦BlueCurrent⁩ co-founder, Nitash Balsara, ⁦Balsara Lab⁩, at ⁦UC Berkeley⁩. Important read: Why Do Batteries Sometimes Catch Fire and Explode? – Berkeley Lab News Center newscenter.lbl.gov/2023/11/02/why…

Lots of updates with new papers - first up we have recent work from Saheli looking at lithium transference in star-shaped multivalent anions and found that slow self-diffusion of bulky anions doesn't necessarily improve lithium transference. Read it here: pubs.rsc.org/en/content/art…

Jackie's final paper from the Balsara group is now out - she used time-resolved X-ray tomography to study lithium protrusions. Cool application - see how different factors influence local rates of the electrochemical reaction in the cells. Here's the link: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.114…

Another new paper from Saheli and Chao combined WAXS and MD to identify how the solvation cage of lithium changes between two polymer electrolytes. Interestingly, the anion is only involved in the solvation cage in one of them. Read it here: pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.10…

In new work from Zach, he used Raman Spectroscopy to measure the salt concentration profiles in polymer electrolytes. The measured profiles agree qualitatively with the theoretical profiles from concentrated solution theory. Read it here: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.114…

Cool paper out from Alec - using X-ray microtomography he measured the ionic current densities with high spatial resolution in a battery at rest. Important takeaway - even at rest there can be extremely large local current densities from lithium plating. pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.10…

Another paper from Zach! He measured the Sand's time of polymer electrolytes and compared it to predictions from concentrated solution theory and found they match qualitatively. He also derived a general analytical expression for Sand's time Link here: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.114…

In Emily's first paper with the Balsara lab she used in situ SAXS and X-ray transmission to track phase transitions and map salt concentration gradients in a solid block copolymer electrolyte - check it out here: pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.10…

From our collection on Self-Assembly of Complex Phases in Block Copolymer Materials, this #ResearchUpdate describes the use of cryo-TEM to connect molecular structure and self-assembly behavior of block copolymers Balsara Lab Berkeley Lab College of Chemistry go.aps.org/3OHomOn

In Neel’s final PhD paper, he used QENS to measure the solvation lifetime of a lithium ion in a polymer electrolyte. Chao Fang reproduced these results using MD to provide a direct measurement of solvation dynamics in an electrolyte!  #QENS #ORNL #LBL nature.com/articles/s4156…

Solvation dynamics affect charge transport, but conflicting values are reported for organic electrolytes. Here, lifetimes of order 1 ns for organic polymer/lithium salt mixtures with ultraslow solvation shell break-up dynamics are now reported. Balsara Lab go.nature.com/3T750U3

Scientists using neutrons set the first benchmark (one nanosecond) for a polymer-electrolyte and lithium-salt mixture. Findings could boost power and safety for lithium batteries! bit.ly/3Jlwwc8