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CBE Seminar: “Using NMR to Probe Functionality at Electrochemical Interfaces in Beyond Lithium Batteries” (Lauren Marbella, Columbia University)
October 8, 2025 at 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Abstract:
Beyond lithium-ion batteries, like sodium and potassium, are more abundant in the Earth’s crust and alleviate geopolitical concerns surrounding the materials inside of lithium-based batteries. However, both sodium and potassium batteries display unique interfacial chemistry that develops during electrochemical cycling in conventional electrolytes, preventing performances that are on par with current lithium systems. In the region between the electrodes and the electrolyte, a solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is produced by the spontaneous breakdown of electrolyte compounds that dictates these inefficiencies. In my talk, I will discuss how we use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to probe the structure and dynamics of the SEI as well as the reactions that occur at these interfaces to correlate these features with battery degradation. Insight from these methods allow us to determine the precise mechanisms of failure that arise inside of functional devices as well as develop new approaches to mitigate performance decline.
Lauren Marbella
Associate Professor
Lauren Marbella is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University. Her research group focuses on understanding the relationship between electrochemical performance and interfacial chemistry in devices for energy storage and conversion. Marbella’s research has received numerous awards including the ASME Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering Award (2024), ACS Materials Au Rising Stars in Materials Research Award (2022), Cottrell Scholar Award (2022), the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award (2021), and the Scialog Collaborative Innovation Award for Advanced Energy Storage (Sloan Foundation, 2019).
She received her PhD in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2016, under the direction of Prof. Jill Millstone. In 2017, she was named a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cambridge in the group of Prof. Clare Grey. There, she was also named the Charles and Katharine Darwin Research Fellow, which recognizes the top junior fellow at Darwin College at the University of Cambridge. She joined the chemical engineering faculty at Columbia University in 2018.