Postdoctoral Fellow

at  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s (LBNL) Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division has an opening for a Postdoctoral Fellow to join the team.
In this role, you will be in the area of electrode manufacturing science for Li-ion batteries, PEM fuel cells, and electrolyzers. You will work to determine and improve performance and durability of electrodes for all of these systems. This will include cell fabrication and testing, post-mortem analysis, and diagnosis of performance-limiting and durability-limiting phenomena. The primary focus of the work will be to understand relationships among process variables and product outcomes. The candidate should be familiar with electrochemical and mechanical concepts.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience with Li-ion battery and/or fuel cell and/or electrolyzer research.
• Computer programming skills.
• Electrochemical systems modeling.
• Experience in electrode fabrication.
• Experience with different Li-ion batteries, fuel cell, and electrolyzer active materials.

WHAT YOU WILL DO:

• Systematically vary mixing conditions to produce battery slurries and fuel cell and electrolyzer inks.
• Perform experiments using a variety of techniques, including rheometry, to quantitatively characterize slurries and inks.
• Fabricate electrodes.
• Perform experiments using a variety of instruments, including confocal microscopy and X-ray beamlines, to quantitatively characterize slurry and ink coatings and electrodes.
• Assemble electrochemical cells and perform electrochemical tests.
• Conduct post-mortem analysis to determine degradation modes.
• Analyze data and develop correlations among process variables and process outcomes.
• Review literature and identify opportunities to apply state-of-the-art techniques to applied problems.
• Conceive and execute research that is novel and can lead to high impact.
• Work as part of a team to execute projects.
• Interface with research stakeholders from industry and national laboratories.
• Provide ideas, suggestions, and guidance to colleagues.
• Bring research to fruition, resulting in presentations at meetings, publications in journals, or patents.
• Work on meeting milestones and reporting them to project sponsors.
• Adhere to ETA and EH&S safety guidelines.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES AS NEEDED:

• Attend conferences and project management meetings.
• Interact with the LBNL electrochemistry community (with extensive experience in batteries, modeling of batteries and fuel cells, electrode material synthesis, spectroscopy, and cell design) to aid in electrochemistry research.