Biography

Prof. Lu received her Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry, Founding Member of Young Academy of Science of Hong Kong, and was the recipient of the RGC Research Fellow (2022), Xplorer Prize (2021), International Battery Materials Association (IBA) Early Career Award (2021), Top 10 Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year Award (2020), Excellent Young Scientists, National Natural Science Foundation of China (2019), Hong Kong SAR Research Grants Council Early Career Award (2014) etc. Her research focuses on high-energy aqueous batteries, metal-air/metal-sulfur batteries, and redox flow batteries.

Safe and Low Cost Aqueous Energy Storage Technologies and Their Applications

Energy storage system is a critical enabling factor for deploying unstable and intermittent renewable power sources, such as solar and wind power sources. Non-aqueous lithium ion batteries dominate the battery markets owing to its high energy density. However, they are flammable, which could bring catastrophic damages in large-scale applications. Redox flow batteries are promising technologies for large-scale electricity storage, owing to its design flexibility in decoupling power and energy capacity. However, redox flow batteries have been suffering from low energy density, which significantly decreases its competitiveness for both stationary and transportation applications. In this presentation, we will discuss strategies to improve the safety, energy density, and cycle life of Li-ion batteries and redox flow batteries. Ultimately, we aim to enable stable and efficient high-energy-density energy storage systems to address the intermittency of the renewable power sources. This will bridge the gap between intermittent renewable power supplies and power demands in grid-storage and electric-vehicles.