Zewen Zhang

Batteries have revolutionized modern energy storage and are essential to global sustainability. Future development of battery technologies necessitates a fundamental understanding of the battery in operation, especially at the interfaces that dictate the failure modes and govern the overall performance. However, these buried interfaces have been elusive to the battery community since they are extremely sensitive and highly dynamic during battery operation. My research combines materials science and structural biology to develop cryo-electron microscopy methodology to resolve the critical interfaces in their native state. I will “freeze” the batteries in operation and “take a snapshot” inside to resolve 3-D atomic structure and chemistry of key interfaces spanning multiple time and length scales. Such findings will provide a clear understanding of crucial failure mechanisms in batteries, introduce new discoveries in energy science, and establish cryo-EM protocols for analyzing sensitive materials preserved in their operating state.