Request Expert

With over 30 years of experience in battery chemistry, Expert has been working on a CRADA with several US battery companies to develop a carbon that can be used as an anode in lithium-ion batteries. He led a team that studied DOE-developed carbons. The team looked at modification of the synthesis parameters and achieved over 600 mAh/g in test cells. He also worked on the development of a lithium-ion battery for the DOE using this carbon with LiMn2O4 spinel cathode.

Expert worked on the development of a high-reliability, safe lithium sulfur dioxide battery for long life applications. He led a team that discovered the faults leading to premature failure and developed new materials and processes to eliminate such faults. He has redesigned batteries that performed with a reliability of 0.99997 over a 5-year continuous drain period, with no safety incidents.

Expert developed the use of fault-tree analysis to identify the root cause of battery accidents. Using this technique, he discovered the cause of battery explosions in a test chamber and devised a means for preventing a recurrence.

Expert discovered the cause of shock sensitivity in lithium sulfur dioxide cells discharged at low temperatures, and then redesigned the cells to eliminate this problem. He designed a shipping container for safely shipping lithium sulfur dioxide batteries on passenger aircraft and received a DOT exemption allowing such shipment. Expert has co-authored a book on battery safety.

Due to his knowledge of battery chemistry and materials, Expert has gained expertise with manganese dioxide. He led a team that looked at improving LiMn2O4 as a cathode for lithium ion batteries by doping the spinel structure. The program consisted of three parts: computer modeling, synthesis of doped materials, and electrochemical testing.

Expert worked with NASA (Hughes Aircraft) to help design the lithium sulfur dioxide battery for the Galileo probe to Jupiter using the principles developed for the Sandia battery. He designed a test and performed calculations to predict the reliability for a 10-year mission. He also calculated the reliability of numerous systems using fault tree analysis. Expert co-authored a book on battery reliability.