Ya You

Given the tremendous need for the oil crisis and the economic crisis, energy storage and conversion has been designated a national/international priority for research and development. In order to more effectively utilize clean energy, such as solar energy, wind energy, and geothermal energy, it is necessary to develop large-scale energy storage. As energy storage application scenarios continue to expand, batteries will inevitably face more extreme working environments, such as extreme cold, extreme heat, vacuum, and radiation.

Ya You is committed to developing key materials and technologies for new energy storage batteries that work under extreme conditions. You discovered that Prussian White (PW) presents negligible volume change (< 1%) during cycling because of its open framework and large Na+ storage sites. Such discovery on “zero-strain” feature makes PW a promising cathode candidate for Na-ion batteries. Her work on PW cathodes is highly visible through investing a “high-quality”, “Na-rich”, and “highly crystallized” material, which greatly improved its energy density and cycling stability. She successfully expanded the operation temperature range to -25 – 70 ºC via developing an all-climate PW material and developed a prototype Na-ion battery system which is capable of working in a wide temperature range.

You also explored a temperature-adaptive electrolyte design for the very first time, wherein the solvation structure alters adaptively with temperature because of a spontaneously increase of entropy. She successfully extended the use of cyclic ether solvents with much improved low-temperature performance in battery. With an elegant electrolyte recipe, she was able to enable a highly stable and safe 4.6 V LiCoO2 cathode, the dominating material in consumer electronics, which provides a novel insight into the rational design of high-voltage and safe battery systems by adopting the flame-retardant electrolyte. One of her “temperature-adaptive” electrolyte recipe successfully inhibits the thermal runaway process of high-energy Li-metal battery, enabling an intrinsically safe battery.