MSE Talks: Bilge Yildiz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Speaker: Bilge Yildiz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Title: Computing with Protons, and How to Find Better Proton Conductors

Abstract: Discovery of fast proton conductors can significantly advance a wide range of technologies, including hydrogen fuel cells, electrolyzers, electrosynthesis of fuels, batteries as well as brain-inspired computing devices. Using ions, in particular protons in inorganic materials, allows for low-energy brain inspired computing. We have demonstrated that, battery-like devices called electrochemical random access memories (ECRAM) achieve synaptic potentiation, as well as non-linear dynamics involved in local learning rules at synapses, and can serve as building blocks to enable bio-plausible and energy-efficient AI hardware. In particular this application of proton conductors need inorganic, fast proton conductors at room temperature to improve speed, energy and programming voltage needed. A quantitative understanding of the physical traits of a material that regulate proton conduction is necessary for accelerating the discovery of fast proton conductors. While electronic and structural descriptors have been found to facilitate proton conductivity, the role of lattice dynamics remain unexplored quantitatively, albeit hypothesized to be important in affecting proton conduction. In this work, we have mapped the structural, chemical and dynamic properties of solid acids and ternary oxides to the elementary steps of the Grotthuss mechanism of proton diffusion. Our approach combines ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, analysis of phonon spectra and atomic structure calculations. The found physical descriptors of proton conduction also provide paths for increasing the conductivity at low temperature. With the rapid growth of material databases, our approach lays ground for physically informed search of fast proton conductors and enlarges the chemical space of materials to power the green revolution.

Bio: Bilge Yildiz is the Breene M. Kerr (1951) Professor in the Nuclear Science and Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Departments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she leads the Laboratory for Electrochemical Interfaces. She has earned BSc degree at Hacettepe University (Turkey) in 1999, and her PhD at MIT in 2003, and has worked as a research scientist at Argonne National Laboratory prior to returning to MIT. Yildiz’s research focuses on laying the scientific groundwork to enable next generation electrochemical devices for energy conversion and information processing. The scientific insights derived from her research guide the design of novel materials and interfaces for efficient and durable solid oxide fuel cells, electrolytic water splitting, brain-inspired computing, and solid state batteries. Yildiz’s teaching and research efforts have been recognized by the Argonne Pace Setter (2006), ANS Outstanding Teaching (2008), NSF CAREER (2011), IU-MRS Somiya (2012), the ECS Charles Tobias Young Investigator (2012), the ACerS Ross Coffin Purdy (2018), the LG Chem Global Innovation Contest (2020), Rahmi M. Koc Medal of Science (2022), and the Faraday Medal of the RSC (2024) awards. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2021), the Royal Society of Chemistry (2022), and the Electrochemical Society (2023) and an elected member of the Austrian Academy of Science (2023). EMB 105, 15 St. Mary's St.