Designing energy materials from the atomic scale
Shuaishuai Yuan
Mining and Materials Engineering, PhD candidate
Kirk H. Bevan, Supervisor
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
Advanced materials are essential to delivering high-performance clean energy technologies. In many energy materials, such as Li-Air batteries, low conductivity is caused by the formation of polarons and this limits battery performance. Shuaishuai’s research explores the initial stages of polaron formation in the operation of Li-Air batteries down to the atomic scale using state-of-the-art simulation methods. Atomic-scale engineering studies of polaron formation are a necessary step to improve the electronic or optoelectronic properties of different energy materials and their entry into the energy marketplace.