Assistant Professor, Yangying Zhu, has won a 2022 NASA Early Career Faculty Award for her project entitled "Characterization of Lithium-Ion Battery Cycling Through the Freeze-thaw Process".

The extreme range of temperature oscillation (50 K – 350 K) in the lunar environment poses unique challenges to lithium-ion batteries, which need to hibernate during the lunar night (50 – 90 K, 354 hours) and recover at lunar dawn. Recent studies have shown strong evidence that lithium-ion batteries can potentially survive the cryogenic freeze-thaw process. Zhu proposes to perform chemical, mechanical, and electrochemical characterizations on custom lithium-ion cells on a precision temperature stage that can be interfaced with various spectroscopic instruments. The study will allow us to understand fundamental microscopic processes that occur within a lithium-ion battery during extreme temperature transitions with timescales relevant to the lunar environment. The insights gained will help predict the performance, degradation mechanisms, and thermal management strategies for lithium-ion batteries in the lunar environment.

Congratulations, Yangying!