GENERAL SEMINAR: Dr. Gebrekidan Gebresilassie Eshetu, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Title: Beyond Lithium: Rethinking Battery Component Design for Non-Lithium Mono- and Multivalent Rechargeable Battery Technologies
Abstract
The transition beyond conventional lithium-ion batteries requires a fundamental rethinking of battery component design, driven by the distinct physicochemical characteristics of alternative charge carriers. Unlike lithium, emerging mono- and multivalent cations exhibit unique properties, including differences in charge density, ionic size, solvation behavior, diffusion kinetics, and interfacial interactions, which critically influence battery performance at both microscopic and macroscopic scales. This seminar will discuss why reviving non-lithium rechargeable batteries cannot be realized by simply replicating lithium-based materials and architectures. Instead, they require chemistry-specific and mechanism-driven design strategies that account for ion–host interactions, charge transport processes, electrolyte compatibility, electrode reactions, dynamic interface evolution, and safety. Through a critical examination of component-level design principles across diverse mono- and multivalent battery chemistries, this seminar will highlight emerging opportunities and challenges in developing innovative battery architectures for sustainable, high-performance energy storage beyond lithium.
Biography: Dr. Gebrekidan Gebresilassie Eshetu earned his Joint M.Sc. in 2010 in Materials Science and Chemical Engineering with specialization on Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion, under the Erasmus Mundus (European Commission) scholarship program, from five European universities: UPJV (France), WUT (Poland), UPS (France), UCO (Spain), and AMU (France). After obtaining his PhD in Materials for Energy Storage in 2013 from the LRCS (CNRS) laboratory (UPJV, France) under the supervision of Prof. Michel Armand, he carried out his first postdoctoral research at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU, Germany) in the group of Prof. Stefano Passerini. In 2017, he joined CIC Energigune (CIC, Spain) as a senior postdoctoral researcher.
Currently, he is a senior researcher and group leader at RWTH Aachen University (Germany). He is also the coordinator of Good Science and Publications at Center for Ageing, Reliability and Lifetime Prediction of Electrochemical and Power Electronic Systems (CARL) of RWTH Aachen University. At the same time, he is an adjunct professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Mekelle Institute Technology (Ethiopia). In 2020-2021, he was awarded a visiting Professorship of Advanced Materials for Energy Storage at Warsaw University of Technology (WUT, Poland), under the competitive Professorship Award by European Commission MESC program. He is also a fellow of the African Science Leadership Program (ASLP) and founding member of the African Institute for Sustainable Energy and System Analysis (AISESA).
His research interest focuses on the development of Advanced Next generation energy battery devices and their in-depth characterization for applications in the electro mobility, renewable energy integration and utility/grid. Dr. Eshetu has more than 60 peer-reviewed articles in high impact factor journals, including Nature Communication, JACS, Energy & Environmental Science, Joule, Angewandte international, Nano energy, Advanced energy materials etc. and H-index of 38.