Summer Undergraduate Program on Energy Research

2020 projects will include:

• Synthesis, characterization and performance evaluation of catalytic materials for energy and environmental applications. Reactions of interest are: CO2 conversion to fuels and chemicals; hydrocarbon combustion for emission control catalysis; nitrogen electroreduction to fertilizers; production of hydrogen through sustainable processes.
• Model the integration of renewable energy and storage -- both battery and hydrogen storage -- so as to ensure economical and stable grid operations. This project has both modeling and computational challenges.
• Solid-state electrolytes are a promising technology to enable high energy density batteries via coupling to metallic lithium (Li) chemistries; however, their successful deployment has been hampered by mechanochemical instabilities and failure to suppress Li dendrite growth at the Li-electrolyte interface. Owing to the high electrochemical potential of Li, few electrolytes are chemically and electrochemically stable against reduction at the negative electrode, making the formation of a stable solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) necessary for long-term stability of the solid electrolyte (SE). This project will involve the use of spatially resolved X-ray diffraction to investigate the stability of the Li-metal/SEI/SE interface region as well as cracking and growth of Li metal dendrites within the SE. This understanding and the establishment of a detailed interface picture will lead to rational design of interphase engineering strategy in solid state batteries.
• This project involves the development of 100% clean, renewable energy (Green New Deal) roadmaps for dozens of cities worldwide. It involves examining the current and projected future energy demand among all energy sectors in each city; transforming future energy demand to clean, renewable energy demand; quantifying the clean, renewable generators needed; quantifying the land and rooftop requirements; and quantifying the costs, health cost benefits, and climate cost benefits of the transition.
• For more than a decade, my team has been studying what the American public thinks about climate change. And in numerous surveys, we have found that the vast majority of Americans are on the "green" side of the issue. But other survey organizations have been doing surveys of Americans and the same time, asking differently worded questions, and producing different findings regarding the distributions of opinions and patterns of opinion change over time.  This summer, the students working with me will work together to gather up all of this evidence and conduct a statistical meta-analysis to make sense of the apparent inconsistencies and write a report for general distribution with the goal of harmonizing approaches across survey organizations in order to provide more coherent evidence to policy-makers about Americans views of energy, resources, climate impact, and related topics.
• Title: Towards improving high-energy density cathode materials for lithium ion batteries

  Cobalt containing oxides are the dominant cathode materials for cell phone batteries on the market today. However, cobalt is a problematic constituent because in addition to being environmentally harmful there is a humanitarian cost to its production.  A recent report by Amnesty International raises significant concerns over health, welfare and safety of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the principal producer of the element.  Concerns are also raised about widespread use of child labor, human rights abuses and lack of transparency in the supply chain. In this summer project, we will explore a new way to develop better lithium ion battery cathode materials with a view to exploring higher capacity cathode oxide materials which replace, or better utilize, problematic elements.  By using high pressure, the increase of the proportion of intercalated lithium will be measured and the structural changes in the host oxide lattice will be observed as a guide to future synthesis strategies.

• This project involves testing homes for natural gas emissions from residential appliances. Previously, homes have rarely been quantified for their contribution to large-scale methane emission inventories, so this project will focus on systematically measuring total house methane emissions. We plan to test homes using a duct blaster and a Picarro cavity-ring down spectrometer, and will measure the emissions from the home with the appliances both on and off.

  The student’s project will focus on gaining an understanding of the distribution of housing in California and understanding the natural gas usage patterns. Having a good understanding of the number gas appliances in homes of the state and usage patterns is essential to accurately scale our individual-home sample to the contribution of homes to the state’s methane budget. The student can work on developing and deploying loggers to measure the appliances' usage. In addition to this independent project, the student will be able to participate in lab testing and field work on measuring methane emissions.

• Nanoscale Coatings for Lithium ion Battery Application

  Increasing energy demands and depleting fossil-fuel resources require the advancement in renewable energy sources and sustainable storage technologies. Li-ion batteries (LIBs) are the most employed energy storage system for portable electronic devices and electronic vehicles. In general, higher energy density, faster charging and safer LIBs are important for achieving larger penetration of LIBs in energy technologies. One challenge that hinders the development of such LIBs is the use of graphite as the anode in LIBs. An active research area in trying to overcome these challenges is replacing the graphite anode with a Si anode, which has much higher capacity (~3500 mAh/g at room temperature vs ~372 mAh/g for graphite). However, the major challenge Si anodes suffer from is a large volume expansion during lithiation. Unfortunately, this volume expansion causes a cracking of the solid-electrolyte interface (SEI) and gradual Li ion consumption resulting in irreversible capacity loss and performance degradation in the LIBs. Coating Si anodes with a protective layer may prevent parasitic reactions, stabilize the electrode-electrolyte interface and improve the mechanical properties of the electrodes. The electrode coating materials should be Li-ion conducting, electrically insulating, thin and conformal. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a promising coating technique in this regard, as it relies upon sequential self-limiting surface reactions to grow thin, conformal, and pinhole-free films with precise thickness control.

  The goal of this summer project is to develop novel organic-inorganic hybrid (OIH) materials for coating of LIBs electrodes using ALD. The new hybrid thin films will be designed to stabilize the surface of a Si anode against electrolyte decomposition and to resolve Li loss in the electrolyte during cycling, thus allowing this higher capacity material to replace graphite. In this project, the student will acquire expertise on ALD from Professor Stacey Bent‘s group and use the technique to deposit the hybrid thin films with controlled composition and thickness and determine the ideal deposition conditions. Then the student will characterize the thin films and apply the deposition on Si anodes. Battery life cycle and coulombic efficiency will be tested for understanding the effect of coatings on the electrodes.

• Over the summer of 2020 we are working on an energy data visualization and data thinking research project. We enroll middle school youth in a program to learn to “visualize” their utility energy smart meter data and their energy activities using an American version of the JoyMeter time use app. Youth create the data set and visualize their electricity data and energy activities using the software Tableau. Stanford and other students working on the project teach and help develop and refine animation and other video and software materials to teach data visualization (information visualization using drawing & software-based visualization), behavioral theory and techniques applied to energy reductions, and prototype materials for an Energy Behavior Change Portfolio (an outcome of the project). Students and Project staff will examine participant changes in both self-reported behavior change and direct measures of electricity consumption.

2019 projects included:

• Driving into a Clean Energy Future with Electric Buses
• Developing a Low-Cost Greenhouse for Emerging Economies
• Developing Data-Driven Models for the Thermal Dynamics of Livestock Barns in California Dairy Farms
• Understanding Pro-Environmental Behavior Preferences

2018 projects included:

• Examining Digestibility of Phosphoethanolamine Cellulose for Cellulosic Ethanol
• Low Cost, Clean Energy Produce Dryer for Use in Rural Indian Farming Communities
• Synthesis of Colloidal Silver Nanoparticles and Their Catalytic Potential in the Conversion of Propylene to Propylene Oxide
• Designing the Know Your Energy Numbers Program
• Watching the Flag: Training a Neural Network to Predict Wind Speeds
• Global Warming Survey Methodology
• Unlocking Google’s Street-level Visual Data
• Detecting Natural Gas Leaks in Bay Area Homes and Quantifying Leakage From Natural Gas Water Heaters
• Fabricating Stretchable Batteries Using Ion-Conducting Elastomers (ICE)
• Limiting Voltage Violations in an Electrical Network with Distributed Energy Resources