My research is at the intersection of engineering, physics, and mathematics, motivated by societal needs in energy, the environment and sustainability. Meeting these needs will require scientific advances that, I believe, will not be achieved by experiment or simulations alone, but by a close integration of the two with mathematical theories and approximations. My group combines theory and experiment with members from chemical engineering, as well as applied mathematics, mechanical engineering, physics, and materials science. Our research spans electrochemistry, transport phenomena, energy storage, water purification and nanotechnology.

Press

• Multi-university effort will advance materials, define the future of mobility , MIT News, April 3, 2017.
• In batteries, a metal reveals its dual personality, MIT News, Sept. 1, 2016.
• A nanoview of battery operation, Science, August 2016.
• Stanford-led team reveals nanoscale secrets of rechargeable batteries, Stanford News, August 2016.
• Bose Grants fund bold and innovative visions, MIT News, November, 2015.
• Shocking new way to get the salt out, MIT News, November 2015.
• Study sheds light on why batteries go bad, Sceince Daily, September, 2014.
• Novel bromine battery: Small-scale demo, large-scale promise, Energy Futures 4, Spring 2014.
• How electrodes charge and discharge, MIT News, April 2014.
• Researchers resolve misunderstanding bout how some lithium batteries function, ClimateWire, April 2014.
• New desalination technique also cleans and disinfects water, MIT Technology Review, Feb. 11, 2014.
• Interview videos at Ser ious Science
• Spurring storage, Energy Next, Nov. 2013. Power surge for flow batteries, Nature 500, 504-505 (29 August 2013).
• New rechargeable flow battery enables cheaper, large-scale energy storage, MIT News, Aug. 2013
• Rethinking Battery Design, NSF Award Highlight, 2013.
• Revealing how a battery material works, MIT News, Feb. 8, 2012.
• Fill 'er up with... lithium SIAM News, Mar. 1, 2010.
• MIT Energy Fellow's model may power up the batteries of the future, MIT Energy Initiative, June 17, 2009.
• `Two-faced' particles act like tiny submarines, Science News, Mar. 3, 2008.
• Big lab on a tiny chip, Scientific American, October 2007, pp. 100-103.
• Theoretical plumber, Popular Science, October 2007.(some follow-up articles: USA Today, MIT News Office)
• Fast Moving Front: "Induced-charge electrokinetic phenomena", Thompson Scientific, Sept. 2007.
• MIT's "Dream Team" wins SIAM Award for MCM 07, SIAM News, June 12, 2007.
• Battery-powered lab-on-a-chip could be near, EE Times , Nov. 27, 2006.
• Portable 'lab on a chip' could speed blood tests, MIT News, Oct. 16, 2006.
• Micropumps create a "fluid conveyor belt" , ISN News, Sept. 9, 2006.
• Fractal tendrils, Tech Talk, Feb. 4, 2004.
• Team combines modeling and experimentation to improve microfluidics, ISN News, Feb. 2, 2004.

• Rechargeable batteries

  We have a long-term focus on mathematical modeling of batteries, aiming to connect nanoscale materials physics and electrochemistry with macroscopic battery engineering. Our unique approach to theoretical electrochemistry is based on non-equilibrium thermodynamics and captures the dynamics of complex active materials undergoing phase transformations. Much of our work has been on Li-ion batteries, especially LiFePO4 cathodes and graphite anodes, focusing on phase separation dynamics in nanoparticles, mosaic instability and macroscopic phase transformations in porous electrodes, elastic coherency strain effects, impedance spectroscopy, double layer effects, capacity fade, accelerated aging, and lifetime statistics. We also do experiments to support our modeling work and recently provided evidence for the Marcus-Hush-Chidsey theory of electron transfer for the first time in a solid/solid electrode interface. We also recently discovered a -transition in lithium growth mechanisms, which led to new design principles for safe, dendrite-free metal anodes for high-energy, high-capacity rechargeable batteries. We also collaborate with a number of experimental groups, such as that of W. Chueh at Stanford using sophisticated nanoscale imaging methods to test our theories. This work has been supported by NSF (Focused Research Group 2008-2012), Samsung/SAIT, Bosch, Lincoln Laboratory, MITEI.
  • Publications
  • Physics of Next Generation Batteries, LECTURE VIDEO. PDF without movies (22MB)
  • Electrochemical Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics, slideshows: Lecture 1, Lecture 2s)

• Fuel Cells and Flow Batteries

  The membrane is often the most expensive part of a fuel cell or battery and the least reliable over time. We are developing "membraneless" flow batteries that take advantage of laminar co-flowing streams of reactants and electrolytes to prevent fuel crossover and exploit halogen electrochemistry to achieve high power density (~1 W/cm2) and low cost (~$100/kWh) for scalable, stationary energy storage . Our initial hydrogen-bromine membraneless flow battery prototype with Cullen Buie broke records for flow batteries in power, efficiency, and cost, and we are developing novel flow architectures for long cycle life, a first for membraneless cells. We are also developing lithium-bromine-oxygen dual mode flow batteries for autonomous underwater vehicles. For Saint Gobain, we have also devekoped theoretical models for solid oxide fuel cells, focusing on impedance.
  • Publications

• Shock electrodialysis

  Over-limiting current to membranes and electrodes, "deionization shocks" (sharp, propagating salt concentration gradients) in microstructures, concentration polarization and electro-osmotic convection in micro/nanochannels and in micro/nanoporous media, homogenization (volume averaging) for ion transport in microstructures, applications to water purification and desalination by "shock electrodialysis". This work involves both theory and experiments and was supported by Weatherford International, through the MIT Energy Initiative.
  • Shock Electrodialysis, Powerpoint show movies (41MB)
  • Scalable and continuous water deionization by shock electrodialysis: PDF, Supporting Info
  • Publications, Langmuir (2013), Desalination (2015)
  • Mani & Bazant (2011), Fig. 1: Movie of a deionization shockwave
  • Nam et al. (2015): experimental movies and confirmed predictions of Dydek et al. (2011)

• Electrodeposition in Porous Media

  We are developing mathematical models and experimental systems to understand and control the dynamics of metal deposition and dissolution in porous templates, including ceramic or carbon-based materials with chemically modified surfaces, with applications in nanotechnology (fabrication of nanoparticles, nanostructured materials), energy storage (battery electrodes and separators), and information storage (resistive switchting, ReRAM, CD-RAM). Related to our work on desalination, we are exploring "shock electrodeposition" at high currents, exceeding diffusion limitation due to surface conduction and electro-osmotic flow in the porous medium. We are also developing novel porous ceramic separators and new cell architectures for rechargeable metal batteries. Supported by Bosch, IBM, Saint Gobain.
  • Publications

• Diffuse-Charge Dynamics and Capacitive Deionization

  Dynamics of double layer charging. Supercapacitors. Nonlinear dynamics of capacitive deionization (CDI), mixing energy harvesting and selective ion adsorption by porous electrodes; transport phenomena, effects of Faradaic reactions.
  • Publications

• Induced-charge electro-osmosis

  Fundamental theory of "ICEO" flow at large voltages, microfluidic applications, AC electro-osmotic micropumps and mixers, induced-charge electrophoresis and electrodiffusiophoresis of polarizable particles, ICEO flows around biological membranes, ionic liquid jet emitters. See also Nonlinear Electrokinetics @ MIT.
  • Publications

• Exact solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations
• Adsorption/confined fluids, dynamics and hysteresis of capillary condensation, multiphase flow, and electrokinetic fracturing in porous media. Freeze-thaw damage. This work is supported by the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub
• Microfluidics, hydrodynamic slip at textured surfaces.
• Granular flow, carried on by Ken Kamrin (MIT) and Chris Rycroft (Harvard).

• Nonlinear PDEs: Asymptotic analysis, boundary layer approximations, scaling and self-similarity.
• Complex analysis: conformal mapping, stochastic iterated maps, singularity dynamics, impedance.
• Applied probability: statistical physics, random walks and diffusion, aggregation, breakdown phenomena.

  See also my 2008 Research Summary (in applied mathematics).

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