June 24, 2009
JPSI Workshop: Energy Storage Research Opportunities at the National Synchrotron Light Source
The "Energy Storage Research Opportunities at the National Synchrotron Light Source" workshop, sponsored by the Joint Photon Sciences Institute (JPSI) and the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS), was held at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) on June 4-5, 2009. The participants came from universities, industries, and national laboratories including SUNY at Binghamton, SUNY at Buffalo, Stony Brook University, Rutgers University, Cornell, the University of Chicago, the University of Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, IBM, Bren-Tronics, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and BNL. About 45 invitees joined this one-and-a-half day workshop.
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Doon Gibbs, BNL's Deputy Director for Science and Technology, and Jim Misewich, BNL's Associate Lab Director for Basic Energy Sciences, both gave a warm welcome and addressed the importance of energy storage research to the Laboratory and the nation. Richard Drake, Program Manager from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), introduced the organization and its perspective. Then NSLS Chair and Director of JPSI, Chi-Chang Kao, provided background information on the growth of synchrotron radiation, NSLS, NSLS-II, and JPSI, and set the charge for the workshop. The charge was to: a) demonstrate the ways that synchrotron and electron techniques can help solve important problems in this field and improve the understanding of characteristics and behavior of materials for the energy storage industry; b) learn what the current issues are in energy storage from those performing research; and c) produce two matrices of projects: one for action now at the NSLS, and the other to aid in planning for NSLS-II. NSLS scientist Jun Wang introduced the energy-storage matrix, which consists of synchrotron tools and technology issues, and the agenda of the workshop.
In the early morning session, a review of synchrotron techniques relevant to energy storage was covered by three talks on current highlights and capabilities, presented by NSLS users X-Q. Yang (BNL), F. Alamgir (Georgia Tech.), and M. Croft (Rutgers). They reviewed in-situ powder diffraction, x-ray absorption spectroscopy, and high-energy dispersive diffraction as well as applications of those techniques in the field. In the late-morning session, four university speakers, G. Amatucci (Rutgers), S. Whittingham (SUNY at Binghamton), C. Grey (Stony Brook University) and E. Takeuchi (SUNY at Buffalo), provided overviews on critical needs in the science and technology of energy storage and discussed the challenges and opportunities.
In the afternoon session, scientists from BNL (J. Graetz, Y. Chu, L. Yang, J. Hill, and J. Wang), the University of Chicago (A. Lanzirotti), and Stony Brook University (M. Dawber) introduced emerging electron and synchrotron techniques and their importance to energy-storage applications including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), micro- and nano- transmission x-ray microscopy (XCT, TXM), scanning x-ray microscopy (SXM), grazing incidence small angle scattering (GISAXS, SAXS), x-ray resonant scattering, surface scattering, and other synchrotron techniques. Six project beamlines at NSLS-II and their advanced capabilities also were introduced and discussed.
Following the presentations in the afternoon was a NSLS facility tour guided by Kao, C. Nelson and Z. Zhong (NSLS). Discussions continued at the networking dinner.
In the morning session of the second day, tables were arranged by synchrotron and electron technique with pre-determined facilitators. Teams joined up to produce project and capability documents, which were presented by representatives from collaboration teams to the whole group. Collaboration contacts were assigned for each project — one from the synchrotron side, and one from energy storage. These documents will be organized into an updated energy storage project matrix, which will serve as a continually evolving working document for the community.
The organizers would like to thank the speakers, the many people who helped prepare the highlight matrix, and especially those who served as synchrotron technique experts and facilitators for the breakout session: F. Alamgir (Georgia Tech.), S. Khalid (NSLS), L. Carr (NSLS), Q. Yang (Chem. Dep., BNL), J-M. Bai (ORNL), K. Evans-Lutterodt (NSLS), Z. Zhong (NSLS), C. Nelson (NSLS), J. Hill (CMPAS, BNL), M. Dawber (Stony Brook University), L. Yang (NSLS), Y. Chu (NSLS-II), A. Lanzirotti (University of Chicago), and B. Raghothamachar (Stony Brook University).
Co-organizers:
Chi-Chang Kao (NSLS, JPSI)
Jun Wang (NSLS)
Jason Graetz (Energy Sciences and Technology, BNL)
Jim Misewich (BNL)
Kathy Nasta (NSLS)
ARTICLE BY: Jun Wang