The 22nd ISCST Symposium will feature keynote talks presented by distinguished researchers from academic, industrial, and national laboratories. Keynote talks will cover topics related to coating materials, process and technology for energy and sustainability applications. Sections below provide talk titles, abstracts, and information about each keynote speaker.
Title: “Sustainable Materials for Coatings”
YuanQiao Rao, Ph.D. Senior R&D Fellow, Core R&D Labs, Dow Inc.
As one of the leading materials companies, Dow has set ambitious goals to contribute to a sustainable future through our expertise in material science and collaborative efforts. This talk focuses on material development for the coating industry.
Building a sustainable future presents many opportunities. Coatings are an excellent tool for providing economic advantages by using less material and important functionalities for various applications. While coating solutions in the past were mainly engineered for performance and economics, future coating solutions must seek significant transformations in using safer and sustainable materials, lower energy use, and design for recyclability. Dow has been working on all these aspects in the past decade to support this transformation. Examples include a recyclable barrier coating for paper substrates, wash-off labels to enable low C recycling, and replacement of fluor surfactant to control coating quality.
During this discussion, we also delve into the challenges researchers face in decarbonization, circular economy practices, and developing safer materials.
Title: “Coating Science for Fuel Cell and Electrolyzer Manufacturing”
Scott Mauger, Ph.D. Senior Scientist, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells and electrolyzers are crucial for the decarbonization of transportation and many industrial sectors that are difficult to directly electrify. To achieve rapidly approaching zero emissions targets, manufacturing of these technologies is in the early stages of expansion. Many companies have announced plans to significantly increase their manufacturing capacity through new facilities or expansion of existing facilities. Roll-to-roll coating will play a principal role in the manufacturing of these technologies as the primary repeat unit of fuel cell and electrolyzer stacks – the membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) – is amenable to established roll-to-roll processes. That said, there are processing challenges that must be addressed to facilitate high-volume manufacturing, including challenges with coating processes, film microstructure, and drying. To address the these challenges the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) has launched a new consortium, the Roll-to-Roll (R2R) Consortium, to conduct process science and engineering research for fuel cell and electrolyzer manufacturing. R2R’s mission is to advance efficient, high-throughput, and high-quality manufacturing methods and processes to accelerate domestic manufacturing and reduce the capital cost of durable and high-performing systems. This talk will provide an overview of the R2R Consortium’s research activities in coating-science topics such as coating process development, formulations, and process modeling.
Title: “Phase Transformations in Metal Halide Perovskites”
Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Perovskite solar cells promise to yield efficiencies beyond 30% by further improving the quality of the materials and devices. Electronic defect passivation and suppression of detrimental charge-carrier recombination at the different device interfaces has been used as a strategy to achieve high performance perovskite solar cells. However, the mechanisms that allow for carriers to be transferred across these interfaces are still unknown. Through the contributions to better understand 2D and 3D defects the perovskite solar cell field has been able to improve device performance. Albeit the rapid improvements in performance, there is still a need to understand how these defects affect long term structural stability and thus optoelectronic performance over the long term. In this presentation, I will discuss the role of crystal surface structural defects on optoelectronic properties of lead halide perovskites through synchrotron-based techniques. The importance of interfaces and their contribution to detrimental recombination will also be discussed. Finally, a discussion on the current state-of-the-art of performance and stability of perovskite solar cells will be presented.
Title: “About coating, drying and post-drying in battery applications – recent advances and ongoing challenges.”
Dr.-Ing. Philip Scharfer
Dr.-Ing. Philip Scharfer, Thin Film Technology (TFT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Prof. Dr-Ing. Dr. h.c. Wilhelm Schabel, Thin Film Technology (TFT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
In the rapidly evolving landscape of battery technology, optimizing the processes of coating, drying, post-drying and the overall humidity management holds paramount importance for enhancing the performance, reliability, and cost effectiveness of battery systems. This talk explores the latest advancements and persistent challenges in these critical stages of battery manufacturing.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wilhelm Schabel
Coating techniques such as roll-to-roll slot-die coating have seen significant advancements, enabling control over electrode thickness and edge elevations, adjusting film morphology by simultaneous multi-layer coating, and meet special product demands by high-speed intermittent and stripe coating. For simultaneous double-layer coating, also tensioned-web coating is under investigation. Many of these coating-related approaches have led to improved electrode properties, contributing to enhanced energy density and cycling stability.
However, challenges persist in achieving uniform coatings, especially for multi-layers and simultaneous double-sided coatings, and ensuring compatibility with various electrode formulations. Drying and post-drying processes play a crucial role in removing solvents, forming solid electrolyte interfaces (SEI), and controlling microstructure, directly impacting battery performance and safety.
Recent developments in drying technologies, including hot-air, infrared, laser and inductive drying, have shown promise in achieving faster drying rates while minimizing undesired binder migration and improving energy efficiency. Additionally, an advanced understanding of post-drying and humidity management should help to lower the overall production costs of battery cell manufacturing.
Nevertheless, challenges remain in scaling up these processes to industrial levels, ensuring reproducibility, and minimizing environmental impacts. Addressing these challenges requires interdisciplinary efforts involving materials science, engineering, and process optimization.
This talk will give an overview about latest research findings, technological innovations, and future prospects in coating, drying, post-drying techniques for battery applications and humidity management aspects. By shedding light on both recent advancements and ongoing challenges, this talk aims to inspire collaborative efforts and drive further innovation in the field of battery manufacturing.
Title: “Solution-processed perovskite films for scalable perovskite solar cells“
Prof. Jangwon Seo, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have received considerable interest due to their low-cost solution fabrication, flexible and lightweight application, and high power conversion efficiency (PCE). Comprehensive advancements in solution fabrication of perovskite film, optimization of device configuration, composition engineering, interface engineering, and additive engineering for efficient PSCs have caused the PCE of PSCs to increase from 3.8% in 2009 to 26.1% over the past decade. Furthermore, it is of the utmost importance to attain a perovskite thin film that is highly crystalline, uniform, and devoid of defects via solution coating and printing technologies. For scalable PSCs, in particular, numerous efforts have been devoted to the development of solution-coated and printed perovskite film using industry-compatible and high-throughput processing. In this talk, I will provide a concise overview of the evolution of PSCs and the most significant developments that have advanced their performance. Furthermore, I will discuss on the present challenges that must be resolved during the transition from laboratory to scalable production of solution-processed perovskite film. These challenges include the development of rationally designed precursor inks, scalable solution deposition methods, and environmentally sustainable fabrication techniques. Finally, I will share our efforts to produce a large-area perovskite sub-module featuring a rigid and flexible substrate.
Categories: ISCST Symposium