Energy Materials Failure

Failure on battery materials is an emerging issue due to the increasing use of electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage systems for upcoming hydrogen economy to address the unpredictable nature of renewable energy. It is crucial to have a detailed understanding of battery’s microstructure, chemistry, and how they change during use at the nanoscale to control capacity and prevent degradation for long-lasting and safe operation. Our focus has been on advancing Li-ion battery material for catalytic activity e.g., hydrogen evolution/oxidation and other reactions. APT provides a three-dimensional composition map of materials with sub-nanometer resolution and is expected to play a crucial role in chemical reactions.

Structural Materials Failure

Fatigue analysis in steels is crucial in structural applications as small defects can lead to catastrophic failure. As such, our lab has been focused on this failure analysis of structural materials that have fractured in less than five million fatigue cycles in accordance with ASTM guideline, by introducing advanced multi-scale analysis. Through the in-depth approach to analyzing steel rebars, our lab has gained insights into how cyclic stress loading (i.e. fatigue) affects plastic deformation.