Biography

Dr. Xiao has been leading research thrusts in both fundamental research and practical applications of energy storage materials and systems to accelerate deep decarbonization. Dr. Xiao’s research has led to breakthroughs in long cycling next-generation high energy lithium metal batteries and novel battery materials, accelerating the process to establish domestic manufacturing capability for clean energy technologies. Dr. Xiao’s research has changed how battery research is conducted and reported in the scientific community. The protocols she developed have been broadly adopted by scientists and engineers to cross validate and accelerate innovations in energy storage. Dr.Xiao currently serves as the Deputy Director for DOE’s Innovation Center for Battery500 Consortium. She is also the Director for DOE’s Cathode-Electrolyte Interphase (CEI) Consortium. Her work has been widely reported by many media including a featured story on the Office of Science website, C&EN, R&D magazine, U.S. Department of State, Scientific American etc. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal papers (Google H-index=103; citation: >46,000) and 2 book chapters. She has been named continuously as the top 1% highly cited research by Clarivate Analytics in the field of materials chemistry since 2017. Dr.Xiao holds 26 patents and 3 copyrights in the field of energy storage. Seven of her patents/software have been licensed to industry.

Education

• Ph.D in Materials Chemistry, State University of New York Binghamton
• M.S. in Physical Chemistry, Wuhan University, China
• B.S. in Physical Chemistry, Wuhan University, China

Previous appointments

• Battelle Fellow, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (joint appointment)

Research Statement

• Understand synthesis-structure-property relationship in broad energy-bearing materials by applying various scientific tools and engineering solutions
• Explore manufacturing science to accelerate technology translation from academia to market
• Identify and address scientific challenges in electrochemical energy storage systems at industry relevant conditions
  
• Electrochemical devices: from materials selections, architecture design to prototyping, testing and validation

Current projects

Electrochemical Winning Process

Electrochemical deposition process for different metals and understand the relationship between microstructure and electrochemical potential applied. Investigation of various brighteners and levelers to smoothen the surface roughness of electroplated metals.

Synthesis and Scale up of Energy-Bearing Materials

This project is in collaboration with my colleagues at Pacific Northwest National lab and other partners to study manufacturing science behind materials scale up. From raw materials selection, heat analysis to equipment design and manufacturing simplification, different scientific and engineering tools will be combined to provide effective solutions to reduce the manufacturing cost of battery materials. 

Check one example here: https://www.energy.gov/eere/ammto/funding-selections-ammto-bto-and-oe-fy22-multi-topic-foa 

Advanced Battery Technologies

Lithium ion batteries and beyond are being studied in this lab from materials synthesis, characterization, to electrode processing, cell design and fabrication. Jie is currently leading two consortium led by DOE through her joint appointment at PNNL. There are plenty of research topics available for training students who are interested clean energy technologies. 

Cathode-Electrolyte Interphase (CEI) Consortium

Check the details here: https://www.pnnl.gov/projects/cathode-electrolyte-interphase-consortium 

Battery500 Consortium

Check details here: https://www.pnnl.gov/innovation-center-battery500-consortium

Select publications

1. 1. J.Xiao*, et al, “Assessing Cathode-Electrolyte Interphases in Batteries”, Nature Energy, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01639-y
2. 2. M.S. Whittingham, J.Xiao, “Fifty Years of lithium-ion batteries and what is next?”, MRS Bulletin , 2023, 48, 1-7.
3. 3. J. Xiao*, “A granular approach to electrode design”, Science, 2022, 376, 455
4. 4. Y. Bi, J. Tao, Y. Wu, L.Li, Y. Xu, E. Hu, B. Wu, J. Hu,C. Wang, J.-G. Zhang, Y Qi, J. Xiao*, “Reversible planar gliding and microcracking in a single-crystalline Ni-rich cathode”, Science, 2020, 370, 1313-1317
5. 5. J. Xiao*, “How Lithium Dendrites Form in Liquid Batteries”, Science, 2019, 366, 426-427.

Honors & awards

• Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) Technology Research & Innovation Award, bestowed by US Department of Energy, Stanford, MIT and Texas A&M (2023)
• E.O. Lawrence Award, U.S. Department of Energy (2022)
• Lab Director’s Exceptional Scientific Achievements Award (2022)
• R&D 100 Award for Lab-on-a-Fish (2021)
• Battery Technology Award, The Electrochemical Society, (2020)
• Materials Today Rising Star Award (2020)
• Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer of the Suite of Fish and Wildlife Technologies to Advanced Telemetry Systems (2020)
• Young Researcher Award from International Automotive Lithium Battery Association (Ulm, Germany, 2019)
• Distinguished Inventor of Battelle (2019)
• Exceptional Contribution Award, DOE innovation Center for Battery500 Consortium (2018)
• Ronald L. Brodzinski Early Career Exceptional Achievement Award (2013)
• Zappert Award, American Chemical Society (ACS) (2008)
• R&D 100 Award: "Graphene Nanostructures for Lithium Batteries" (2012)
• Fellow, The Electrochemical Society (2020)
• Elected Member, Washington State Academy of Science (2022)

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