Kelsey Hatzell, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is one of five recipients of an Electrochemical Society Toyota 2019-2020 Young Investigator Fellowship awarded this year for projects in green energy technology.
The fellowship is a partnership between the ECS and Toyota Research Institute of North America, a division of Toyota Motor North America.
Fellows receive $50,000 in grants to conduct the research outlined in their proposals, a one-year complimentary ECS membership, and they will publish or present their findings. Depending on research progress and results, Toyota may enter into a research agreement with the recipient to continue the work.
In her proposal—Tracking Ion Transport Pathways and Hybrid Solid Electrolytes—Hatzell’s research group intends to examine transport in solid electrolytes for advanced all solid-state lithium metal batteries. They will couple advanced synchrotron x-ray techniques with modeling and electrochemistry experiments to probe physical and chemical transformations at buried interfaces.
“Lithium metal batteries could increase the energy density of a battery by four to five times. This would mean longer discharge times and longer driving ranges for electric vehicles,” Hatzell said.
Hatzell’s group works on printable materials and understanding electrochemistry at interfaces using a suite of x-ray and neutron techniques. Her research focuses on solid state batteries, inorganic ion conductors, intermediate temperature fuel cells and field-driven separations applications.
Prior to joining the Vanderbilt engineering faculty in 2017, Hatzell was an ITRI-Rosenfeld Postdoctoral Fellow at Berkeley Lab and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Since joining Vanderbilt, she has won the Powe Junior Faculty Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities in 2017 and an NSF Faculty Early Career Development grant in 2019. Hatzell was named a SCIALOG Fellow in energy storage by the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement in 2017 and 2018.
Contact: Brenda Ellis, (615) 343-6314
brenda.ellis@Vanderbilt.edu