Chuntian Cao, a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, has been selected to receive the 2018 Melvin P. Klein Scientific Development Award for her research on lithium-ion batteries.

In her current research, she probes lithium-ion battery materials and devices using SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL). Cao is especially interested in silicon-based batteries.

Using SSRL, Cao investigates how silicon and the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) change as the battery operates. In the research she will present at the 2018 User’s Meeting, she and her co-workers unraveled how the SEI forms on silicon electrodes, as well as other key properties. Based on the knowledge they obtain from X-ray studies at SSRL, she hopes they can find ways to improve the lifetime, capacity and safety of silicon-based batteries.

The Klein award recognizes outstanding research accomplishments by undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs within three years of receiving their PhD who used SSRL for their research. Established in 2006 by the SSRL Users’ Executive Committee, the award honors the late Melvin P. Klein, a biophysicist and pioneer in the field of spectroscopic methods, including X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

SSRL is a DOE Office of Science user facility.