A graduate student from MIE department received prestigious Haythornthwaite Foundation student travel grant | Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Rajasekhar Tripuraneni, a doctoral student of Mechanical Engineering at NJIT, received a prestigious and competitive student travel award from the Haythornthwaite Foundation to present his research on lithium ion battery. Rajasekhar and his advisor Dr. Siva Nadimpalli will attend the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE) 2015 to be held in Nov 13-19, 2015 at Houston, Texas.

Rajasekhar and his advisor Dr. Siva Nadimpalli are investigating the mechanical degradation of advanced battery materials for next-generation lithium ion batteries. This research sheds some light on the mechanical behavior of germanium which offers significantly higher capacity compared to conventional graphite electrodes that can be found virtually in every lithium ion battery. For example, this research shows, for the very first time, that highly brittle germanium undergoes extensive plastic deformation which could delay fracture of electrodes (a major problem in advanced batteries). Findings from this research will be helpful in designing Ge electrodes with high capacity and durability. Such kind of electrodes can impact the transportation, wind and solar power production, and other fields such as biomedical devices.