We recently introduced a new design approach for interdigitated flow fields used in flow-based electrochemical devices. Using them to reduce pumping pressure while uniformizing flow, we demonstrate unprecedentedly low energy consumption in seawater desalination by Faradaic deionization. See the associated open-access Electrochimica Acta article, along with this press release.

University of Illinois researcher Kyle Smith, along with doctoral students Md Habibur Rahman and Vu Do, master’s student Colby Warden, and recent graduate Irwin Loud IV (MSME 2023), have published their new manifold design theory (patent pending) in Physics of Fluids. Their paper, “A Compact, Low-Pressure Manifold with Uniform Flow at Low Reynolds Number,” was also selected by the journal’s editors as a featured article. Read more here.

Our work on microchannels embedded in intercalation electrodes for battery-based desalination was recently published in Energy and Environmental Science. See this press release for more information.

See our new paper published in the Journal of Power Sources where we’ve introduced a spectral Sherwood number for modeling transient electrochemistry within porous electrodes. The results have primary impact on the charging of redox flow batteries using renewable power sources and broader impact on energy and environmental devices, chemical engineering, thermal engineering, petroleum engineering, and hydrology. A related press release is here.

Smith group alumnus Dr. Sizhe Liu recently had his paper on the subject of water’s effect on cation intercalation in Prussian blue analogues accepted in the Journal of Applied Physics.

Three levels of the MechSE community came together on a water desalination research project that resulted in a recent publication in the journal Water Research X, which is the open-access mirror of the high-impact journal Water Research.  Read the complete news article here and the associated open-access journal article here.

The work of PhD student Sizhe Liu investigating the effect of water absorption within Prussian blue analogues was recently published in the journal Physical Review Materials.  The corresponding article is accessible at this link.

Professor Smith was recently interviewed by Purdue University’s Nanotechnology Student Advisory Council concerning his journey in research and becoming a faculty member at the University of Illinois.  The complete interview entitled, “Leverage growth mindset in academics and beyond,” can be viewed at this YouTube link.

The 2019 Water Research article of the Smith group on water desalination using battery-type materials [Reale, Shrivastava, and Smith, Water Research, Vol. 165, Art. No. 114995] was recently highlighted in a WaterWorld magazine article on Sustainability in Desalination.

An article by Smith group alumnus Dr. Venkat Pavan Nemani (now a postdoc at Iowa State University) was recently published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society [Nemani and Smith, J. Electrochem. Soc., DOI: 10.1149/1945-7111/ab9b0d (2020)].  While the modeling of many devices for electrochemical energy storage and water treatment has been democratized by access to commercial and open-source software (e.g., COMSOL, OpenFOAM, and Ansys Fluent), the specific techniques needed to perform robust, reliable, and accurate simulation of the complex processes occurring in those devices are often not reported in the literature.  This article of our’s attempts to bridge that gap by showing that certain conditions must be satisfied to solve the highly coupled equations that govern the simultaneous transport of charge and reactions rates in electrochemical devices.  Further, we introduce several numerical techniques that can be used to make the simulation of such processes robust to operating conditions and design parameters.  While the present article is posed specifically for electrochemical energy storage using redox flow batteries, the issues raised and the techniques introduced readily apply to other electrochemical devices for energy storage and water treatment as well.