Biographical Information

Research Interests

An electrochemical system such as a rechargeable battery or a fuel cell relies on a chain of kinetic and transport processes, which occur and interact across many scales of size and distance. Our research program centers on electrochemical engineering, with an emphasis on the technological problems associated with energy storage and production. We aim to connect the microscopic perspective of the physical chemist with the macroscopic view of the device engineer.

Typical lithium-ion batteries convert chemical energy to electrical energy through reactions that insert or remove lithium from the crystal lattices of porous solids to induce electron exchange. The overall charge/discharge behavior of a battery cell depends on th e crystal structure of the solid insertion compounds involved (angstrom scale), on lithium diffusion and intercalation through aggregated solid domains (nanometer scale), and on ionic conduction within electrode pores and the separator membrane (micrometer scale). These interdependent processes may also be accompanied by undesired side reactions, mechanical forces, and heat generation, all of which may degrade performance of the battery as a whole. Thus one of our current research thrusts is to build models that rationalize electrode instability, internal heat transfer, and material degradation in rechargeable lithium-ion or lithium-anode batteries.

Polymer-electrolyte or solid-oxide fuel cells involve similarly coupled processes, in which the flows of heat, electrical current, and mass occur simultaneously, and can impact each other on multiple scales and in various ways. The development of more sophisticated models for electrochemical systems mandates a parallel development of new theoretical methods, both to provide adequate predictive capability and to supply means by which material properties can be assessed without prohibitively large numbers of experiments. Another research thrust of our group is to extend techniques in the statistical mechanics of transport processes, which may allow macroscopic transport or thermodynamic properties to be deduced from molecular simulations.

Recent Publications

1. C. W. Monroe and J. Newman, “Dendrite Growth in Lithium/Polymer Systems: A Propagation Model for Liquid Electrolytes under Galvanostatic Conditions,” Journal of the Electrochemical Society 150:10 (2003), A1377.

2. C. W. Monroe and J. Newman, “The Effect of Interfacial Deformation on Electrodeposition Kinetics,” Journal of the Electrochemical Society 151:6 (2004), A880.

3. C. W. Monroe and J. Newman, “The Impact of Elastic Deformation on Deposition Kinetics at Lithium/Polymer Interfaces,” Journal of the Electrochemical Society 152:2 (2005), A396.

4. C. W. Monroe and J. Newman, “A Method for Determining Self-Similarity: Transient Heat Transfer with Constant Flux,” Chemical Engineering Education, 39:1 (2005), 42.

5. C. W. Monroe, M. Urbakh, and A. Kornyshev, “Understanding the anatomy of capacitance at interfaces between two immiscible electrolytic solutions,” Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry 582 (2005), 28.

6. C. W. Monroe, L. I. Daikhin, M. Urbakh, and A. A. Kornyshev, “Principles of electrowetting with two immiscible electrolytic solutions,” Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 18 (2006), 2837.

7. C. W. Monroe and J. Newman, “Onsager Reciprocal Relations for Stefan-Maxwell Diffusion,” Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research 45 (2006), 5361.

8. C. W. Monroe, L. I. Daikhin, M. Urbakh, and A. A. Kornyshev, “Electrowetting with Electrolytes,” Physical Review Letters 97 (2006), 136102.

9. C. W. Monroe, M. Urbakh, and A. A. Kornyshev, “The distinctive electrowetting properties of ITIES,” Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 19 (2007), 375113.

10. C. W. Monroe and J. Newman, “An Introduction to the Onsager Reciprocal Relations,” Chemical Engineering Education, 41:4 (2007), 233.

11. C. W. Monroe, T. Romero, W. Mérida, and M. Eikerling, “A vaporization-exchange model for water sorption and flux in Nafion,” Journal of Membrane Science 324 (2008), 1.

12. C. W. Monroe, M. Urbakh, and A. A. Kornyshev, “Double-Layer Effects in Electrowetting with Two Conductive Liquids,”  Journal of the Electrochemical Society 156 (2009) P21.

13. C. W. Monroe and J. Newman, “Onsager’s Shortcut to Proper Forces and Fluxes,” Chemical Engineering Science, 64 (2009) 4804.

14. S. J. Harris, A. Timmons, D. R. Baker, and C. W. Monroe, “Direct in-situ Measurements of Li Transport in Li-ion Battery Negative Electrodes,” Chemical Physics Letters 485 (2010) 265.

15. A. A. Kornyshev, A. R. Kucernak, M. Marinescu, C. W. Monroe, A. E. S. Sleightholme, and M. Urbakh, "Ultra-Low-Voltage Electrowetting," Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 114 (2010), 14885.

16. Q. Liu, A. A. Shinkle, Y. Li, C. W. Monroe, L. T. Thompson, and A. E. S. Sleightholme, “Non-aqueous chromium acetylacetonate electrolyte for redox flow batteries,” Electrochemistry Communications 12 (2010), 1634.

17. S. G. Rinaldo, C. W. Monroe, T. Romero, W. Mérida, and M. Eikerling, “Vaporization-Exchange Model for Dynamic Water Sorption in Nafion: Transient Solution,” Electrochemistry Communications 13 (2011), 5–7.

18. A. Shinkle, A. E. S. Sleightholme, L. D. Griffith, L. T. Thompson, and C. W. Monroe, “Performance Characteristics of the Non-aqueous Vanadium Acetylacetonate Redox Flow Battery,” Journal of Power Sources (2011), in press.

19. A. E. S. Sleightholme, A. Shinkle, Q. Liu, Y. Li, C. W. Monroe, and L. T. Thompson, “Non-aqueous manganese acetylacetonate electrolyte for redox flow batteries,” Journal of Power Sources (2011), in press.

20. A. Shinkle, A. E. S. Sleightholme, L. T. Thompson, and C. W. Monroe, “Effects of electrode material in non-aqueous vanadium acetylacetonate redox flow batteries,” Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, submitted.