Carl Sagan once said “We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself”, which resonated with me very well when I heard it. Indeed, within my short career, I have seen in many times that there are certain rules, trends and ways that repeat themselves in multiple scales. We humans are a part of something much bigger than ourselves, the universe. Only through observing and understanding it, we improve our lives and develop useful tools.

I would either become a software engineer or a football player. I often feel that my mind works with an algorithm. I enjoy looking at computer codes and try to compile them in my mind. Football? I just enjoy scoring!

At work, I love going into the lab, doing my planned experiments and obtaining results that will either confirm or refute my hypotheses. Did it confirm? Ask new questions and repeat. Did it refute? Re-think, re-hypothesize and repeat. Just like computer codes.
Outside of work, my favorite place is where I have not yet discovered!

At TNO, we are working on improving solid-solid interfaces between the battery components for the SUBLIME project. Sometimes it is just like being a mediators in a lawsuit, both parties have their different agendas and we have to come up with the best mediation to satisfy the both parties.

As inconvenient consequences of global warming becoming more and more evident, we see that the world needs to change the current energy production methods and to shift towards renewable energy sources, which are unfortunately intermittent. We thus need reliable, safe and dense energy storage systems. In the SUBLIME project, we are working hard to contribute to the efforts of producing safer batteries with larger energy densities, which will be a big step towards a more sustainable and greener world!

At TNO, we are doing research on developing and improving next generation batteries (NGBs). I am a tireless part of these efforts as a battery scientist. All-solid-state-batteries (ASSBs) are among these NGBs that show great promise on improving safety and capacity of the current lithium-ion-batteries. As we all know, nothing comes in life wrapped in a golden giftbox. Not entirely surprisingly, the ASSB technology also requires some development and “mediation” before it is available for end users. Some of this “mediation” needs to be done at the interfaces between some battery components, localized at the so-called solid-electrolyte-interfaces.

TNO has great experience with spatial atomic layer deposition technology, which is great tool for depositing conformal and very thin layers on a substrate. We are aiming to use this technology to artificially form a thin interfacial layer between the battery components, which would prevent unwanted formations and reactions at the interface. This solution can be applicable for large scale battery production and it can improve the battery safety and life.