The Detsi laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania has recently developed a novel air-free synthesis route to reactive nanostructured materials. 

In this research, I propose to use a similar air-free synthesis protocol to make nanoporous Mg and investigate its performance as LIB anode. However, because of the lab shutdowns, my research changed course to become a literature review of magnesium’s performance in different forms as an anode in lithium-ion batteries. These two papers in combination show Mg acting as an anode in LIB. When labs open up, I am excited to see if we can use nanoporous magnesium to enhance its anode capabilities. 

During  the air-free synthesis, Mg will be electrochemically alloyed with Lithium (Li) using a lithium-half cell under inert gas environment, which will result in the formation of a Mg-Li alloy. Next, Li will be electrochemically removed from the pre-formed Mg-Li alloy, resulting in the spontaneous formation of nanoporous Mg, as demonstrated in literature in the case of tin and other metals.

Next, I will investigate the electrochemical performance of the synthesized nanoporous Mg as the anode in LIBs, by using this nanoporous Mg to prepare a slurry electrode, assemble coin cells, test these coin cells and study their cyclability, specific capacity, Coulombic efficiency, cycle life and calendar life.