Colloquium: “Beyond traditional layered oxides: Exploration of the flexibility of anion lattices to unlock novel Li-ion battery cathodes” with Professor Jordi Cabana (UIC)
Colloquium
January 28, 2026
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location
238 2SES
Calendar
Download iCal FileThe capacity of transition metal oxides as Li-ion battery cathodes is maximized when high oxidation states can be achieved, but these states are not stable, leading to irreversibility and failure. The formal activity of transition metal centers is traditionally employed to account for chemical changes during these redox reactions. In oxides, recent studies suggest that bands with a large oxygen character can supply additional charge beyond the amount compensated at transition metal centers. However, this novel reactivity has strained our understanding of redox chemistry in solids, to the point of questioning how formal redox couples are defined. In parallel, oxyfluorides have recently been explored as alternatives, but the resulting synergies between different anions remain to be ascertained, particularly the role of the halide when metals reach high formal oxidation states or even when anion redox is possible.
This talk will revisit fundamental designs of anionic lattices to unlock novel redox chemistry, from Ocentered activity in oxides using 4d and 5d metals as models to the role that F plays in the stabilizing the redox chemistry and structure of disordered rocksalt oxyfluorides. X-ray absorption spectroscopy will play a central role in our journey, complemented by other tools that probe long and short-range structure. The results will allow us to highlight the richness of the chemistry of transition metal solids that remains to be tapped to continue to push our frontiers of energy density and sustainability of current Li-ion batteries.
Biography: Jordi Cabana is a Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and a Group Leader in the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). Prior to his appointment at UIC, he was a Research Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 2008 to 2013. Professor Cabana completed his Ph.D. in Materials Science at the Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona, Spain in 2004, followed by a postdoctoral appointment in the Department of Chemistry at Stony Brook University. He is generally interested in the physical and inorganic chemistry of materials for electrochemical applications, with emphasis on redox and transport properties. He was designated “Up-and-Coming” by Chemistry of Materials in 2017. He was a Scialog Fellow in Advanced Energy Storage from 2017 to 2020, and he received Scialog Awards in
2018 and 2020.
Date posted
Jan 12, 2026
Date updated
Jan 12, 2026