Materials Science Division

Materials for Energy and Climate Security Group

We are a diverse group of chemists, electrochemists, materials scientists, and chemical engineers who recognize the essential role that materials will play as we strive to develop technologies to help meet our energy, resource, and climate goals.

Our group sits within the Materials Science Division and exists to create connections, share opportunities, mentor and learn from each other, and facilitate teamwork in order to address the enormity of energy and climate security challenges that impact our nation and our world.

The goals and applications of our research are to reduce emissions and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, enable water purification and resource recovery, and understand material degradation and aging. We focus on studying energy storage materials, carbon dioxide capture and conversion, direct air capture materials and processes, and gas and liquid separation technologies. Our toolkit includes advanced manufacturing, polymer science, sorption and surface science, degradation science, advanced characterization, and electrocatalysis.

In the news

Our research and capabilities

Carbon management

An electrochemical reactor

We use 3D printing and advanced manufacturing to design and create novel electrochemical reactors. These electrolyzers are used for a wide range of applications and reactions, including turning air into commercial-grade fertilizer and converting waste CO2 into valuable products and fuels.

Carbon management technologies aim to address carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and reduce atmospheric CO2 concentration through a combination of strategies:

  • Preventing it from entering the atmosphere from point sources of emissions;
  • Removing it directly from the atmosphere for safe storage in geologic formations;
  • Converting it into chemicals and fuels to replace petroleum-derived products.

Our group develops many types of carbon management technologies, including:

  • Capture of CO2 from point sources such as biogas of power plant flue gas;
  • Removal of CO2 directly from the atmosphere using engineered systems, known as direct air capture (DAC);
  • Electrochemical and thermochemical conversion of CO2 into products such as commodity chemicals and carbon-neutral fuels.

Our group works at the forefront of carbon management across technology readiness levels, from fundamental science investigations of materials evolution mechanisms, to the development and scale-up of novel reactors and materials, to process-level design and implementation of advanced adsorbents, solvents, and reactors.

At every stage of development, we use our expertise in materials science, chemistry, chemical engineering, and advanced manufacturing to improve performance of carbon management materials and technologies.

Our multidisciplinary projects rely upon collaborations with not only our colleagues at LLNL but also our partners at other national laboratories and in industry and academia. We work with colleagues in quantum simulations and multiscale modeling, computational engineering and optimization, and materials engineering and manufacturing.

Energy storage

August 2019 journal cover for Applied Materials & Interfaces, which features an artistic rendering of a fullerene monoadduct physisorbed on a graphene network.

Our group develops next-generation batteries for electric vehicle and grid storage applications. We design novel processing approaches for solid-state batteries, with a focus on improving solid/solid interfaces, ion transport properties, and long-term cyclability. To achieve these objectives, we:

  • Create unique electrode architectures via 3D printing and laser patterning techniques, which reduce processing times and side reactions and improve the cyclability of high-capacity lithium metal anodes by incorporating conductive scaffolds;
  • Develop a high-throughput screening capability to identify new solid electrolyte candidates;
  • Design low-cost iron redox flow batteries for scalable grid storage.

We use advanced characterization and multiscale modeling to help understand and predict the effects of different materials, geometries, and processing parameters on battery chemistry, microstructure, and electrochemical performance to accelerate the development of these new energy storage technologies.

Advanced materials and manufacturing

April 2022 journal cover for Polymer Chemistry, which features the volumetric additive manufacture process.

Shape memory polymers are stimuli responsive materials with programmable recovery from a deformed state. Volumetric additive manufacturing of photoresins produces structures with nearly full shape recovery, such as self-standing tripod and actuating three-arm gripper structures.

Our group benefits from a strong polymer chemistry and additive manufacturing (3D printing) background. We develop new monomers and formulations to design smart materials, on-demand degradable polymers for upcycling, and perform multi-material additive manufacturing.

Our new synthetic materials are directly applicable to LLNL core competencies in additive manufacturing, degradation science, and high-energy-density science. These new innovations are part of many internal collaborations with colleagues in computational engineering, within the Global Security Directorate, and at the National Ignition Facility.

Advanced characterization and degradation science

A beamline at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource obtains spectroscopy data.

Operando synchrotron x-ray absorption spectroscopy probes the oxidation state of transition metal oxide catalysts.

Advanced characterization tools can reveal important phenomena in complex systems with high chemical and physical specificity. To understand the dynamics and degradation modes of functional materials, our group partners with scientists at the Department of Energy’s Office of Science user facilities—such as the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource—to conduct in situ characterization experiments. We’ve leveraged advanced manufacturing approaches such as 3D printing to rapidly prototype reactors that enable probing of functional materials under realistic operating conditions.

Systems modeling and analysis

The cover of the August 2020, Revision 1 version of “Getting to Neutral: Options for Negative Carbon Emissions in California” shows a map of California with some topographic features.

The “Getting to Neutral: Options for Negative Carbon Emissions in California” report provides an assessment of negative emissions pathways—ones that physically remove CO2 from the atmosphere—that can help California achieve carbon neutrality.

We use process modeling, technoeconomic analysis, and lifecycle analysis to understand how the development of new materials, reactors, and processes can make an impact when deployed at large scale. In turn, systems analysis informs our materials development targets to make the greatest impact. We focus on systems modeling and analysis of carbon and energy-related technologies. Notable examples include:

  • Electrochemical CO2 reduction to ethylene;
  • Regional assessments of options for implementing negative emissions technologies, including biomass with carbon removal and storage (BiCRS) and direct air capture (DAC), among others.

Our detailed analyses rely on collaborations with colleagues within LLNL in computational engineering, energy systems analysis, and the Global Security Directorate.

Our team

Leadership

Team

Group members

Team

Our publications