New Publication in “Materials Horizons”

The insertion of Li-ions within cathode materials during the discharging of a battery oftentimes brings about one or more structural transformations. Here we demonstrate compositional striping modulations between Li-rich and Li-poor domains along the edges of individual nanowires of Li-ion-intercalated V2O5 based on analysis of hyperspectral X-ray microscopy data. …

New Publication in “Acta Materialia”

In this study, we found that for a Nd-Cu diffusion parallel to the texture axis the increase in Hc is higher than for a diffusion perpendicular to it and strongly depends on the diffusion depth whereas remanence develops in an inverse manner. …

Prof. Xu gave a tutorial entitled “Multi-physics Multi-scale Modeling of Li-ion Batteries” in the Energy Research Workshop of APS March Meeting 2018, 4 Match.

New Publication in “Materials”

In the present study, the effect of the chemical and phase composition on the thermal properties of silicon oxide carbides (SiOC) has been investigated. Dense monolithic SiOC materials with various carbon contents were prepared and characterized with respect to their thermal expansion, as well as thermal conductivity. …

New Publication in “Smart Materials and Structures”

Vibration-based energy harvesting using piezoelectric circular diaphragms (PCDs) with a structure featuring the central mass (C-mass) configuration has drawn much attention in recent decades. In this work, we propose a new configuration with the annular proof mass (A-mass) where an improved energy harvesting is promised. …

Matthew T. McDowell, Georgia Tech, and Bai-Xiang Xu are organizing the session 4.1 called “Mechanics and Electrochemistry of Energy Materials” in the 55th Annual Technical Meeting of the Society of Engineering Science 2008 on October 10th-12th in Madrid, Spain.

New Publication in “Journal of Applied Physics”

This study investigates the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the ferroelectric behavior of bulk polycrystalline Pb0.99Nb0.02(Zr0.95Ti0.05)0.98O3. Polarization versus electric field hysteresis plots were generated as a function of hydrostatic pressure for a range of operating temperatures (298–398 K). …

New Publication in “Nano Energy”

Lithium (Li) dendrite alleviation via three-dimensional (3D) structured current collectors has been well studied for Li metal-based batteries. Here we demonstrate that a hollow carbon nanofiber with proper interior to exterior radius ratio can enable Li-ions to deposit on the inner surface of the channels selectively due to the drifting effect from the structural stresses. …

We congratulate our colleague Yangbin Ma to the successful dissertation of his PhD thesis “Electrocaloric Effect of Ferroelectrics and Relaxors”.

New Publication in “npj Computational Materials”

Voltage-driven 180° magnetization switching without electric current provides the possibility for revolutionizing the spintronics. We demonstrated the voltage-driven charge-mediated 180° magnetization switching at room temperature by combining firstprinciples calculations and temperature-dependent magnetization dynamics simulation. …