Prof. Yidan Cao currently is an Associate Professor at Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University. She graduated with the honor of Outstanding Graduate from Tsinghua University and received B.E. degree in 2011 and Ph.D. degree in 2016. She has been a visiting scholar at MIT in USA from 2013 to 2014, and a Killam Laureates Postdoctoral Scholar at Dalhousie University in Canada from 2016 to 2019. Afterwards, she joined Tsinghua University. She has more than 50 publications in international scientific journals and conferences. With extensive interdisciplinary experience in electrochemistry, materials science, and energy storage technologies, Dr. Yidan Cao’s lab primarily focuses on the development of materials and technologies for high-energy-density lithium battery devices, aiming to not only create new and efficient materials for applications in energy storage, but also enrich the fundamental chemistry understanding in materials science.

With the wide application and rapid development of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles and portable devices, it is highly demanded to develop batteries with higher energy density, improved safety performance, longer lifetime and lower cost. Lithium metal possesses extremely high theoretical capacity of 3860 mAh g-1, ten times that of graphite (372 mAh g-1), and low redox potential (-3.04 V vs standard hydrogen electrode). Replacing graphite-based anode with metallic lithium is one of the most promising strategies to improve the energy density of rechargeable lithium-ion battery to achieve the goal of 400 Wh kg-1 or even higher energy densities. The strategy around current collector is also powerful for developing zero excess lithium or lithium-free rechargeable batteries which is called anode free lithium metal batteries (AFLMBs). Strategies enhancing the interfacial stability between electrode and liquid electrolyte have been investigated. Artificial interface layers in nanoscale with desired architectures, including lithiophilic metallic sites, super three-dimensional structure and crosslinked lithiophilic networks, have been developed to regulate the lithium deposition behavior and prolong the cycle life of lithium in AFLMB. Besides, novel cathode/electrolyte materials with high-capacity/wide electrochemical window have been developed to improve the stability of electrode-electrolyte interface and enable high-energy-density anode-free batteries.