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MEAM Seminar: “Can Materials From the 1930’s Really Revolutionize Battery Manufacturing?”
November 19 at 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM
Fluorinated polymers offer a plethora of unique and sometimes perplexing properties. One of the most interesting is the ability for specific types of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) to undergo room-temperature, sheer-induced, structural transformations leading “unwinding” of crystallites and the formation of nano-scale fibers. This process is commonly referred to as “fibrillation”. The material properties required for this deformation mechanism are so unique that no other polymer is known to exhibit this behavior. By utilizing and controlling this property, complex composites can be manufactured with polymer loadings of less than 1% weight. Recently, this methodology has been used to revolutionize both cathode and anode manufacturing for lithium-ion batteries. This talk will overview the fundamentals of fibrillation, show methods to characterize structures, and discuss unique applications for these materials.
Benjamin Gould
Research Scientist, The Chemours Company
Benjamin Gould has spent the last three years as a Senior Principal Materials Scientist at the Chemours Company, where he works on polymer recycling, battery manufacturing, and materials for the hydrogen economy. Prior to his current position he spent 8 years at Argonne National Laboratory where he held numerous roles ranging from Graduate Student Researcher to Principal Materials Scientist. At Argonne his work focused on understanding structural changes in materials in-situ, and he has made significant contribution in numerous topics such as wind energy, electric vehicles, metal additive manufacturing, and tribology.