Brushett Research Group
Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion
News Archive
December 12, 2016
The Brushett Lab is a Platinum Certified Green Lab under the MIT Green Labs program and wins the Green Labs competition for being the lab to conserve the most resources. Read about the program in MIT News!
December 1, 2016
Tom Carney presents his work on convection batteries to the MIT Deshpande Center annual open house.
December 1, 2016
Prof. Brushett gives a talk on redox flow batteries at the UK Energy Storage Conference 2016 at the University of Birmingham!
November 30, 2016
Prof. Brushett gives a talk on redox flow batteries to the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford!
November 28, 2016
Prof. Brushett, Sujat, and Jarrod all presented their research at the annual MRS fall meeting.
Prof. Brushett presented on the coupled chemical-electrochemical reactions of anthraquinone disulfonic acid in aqueous electrolytes. Sujat presented a new method of catalyst deposition for the electrochemical reduction of CO2. Finally, Jarrod presented two flow battery talks relating to techno-economic analysis of electrochemical energy systems and a new salt-free non-aqueous flow battery concept.
November 21, 2016
Jeff Kowlaski presented his research on molecular engineering and electrochemical characterization of organic materials for redox flow batteries to the chemical engineering department at MIT.
November 17, 2016
Liang Su gives a presentation titled "An Investigation of an Aqueous Sulfide-Iodide Redox Flow Battery" in the Battery and Energy Storage Technologies session at the AIChE Annual Meeting.
November 17, 2016
Kevin Tenny is awarded 1st place for his poster in Fuels, Petrochemicals, and Energy III at the AIChE Annual Meeting.
November 17, 2016
Andres Badel is awarded 2nd place in Fuels, Petrochemicals, and Energy III and received 1st Place Harry West Award, awarded by the AIChE Fuels and Petrochemicals Division for his poster at the AIChE Annual Meeting.
October 25, 2016
Three posters were presented at the MITEI Annual Research Conference: Steven addressed challenges associated with scaling up CO2 conversion, Jeff evaluated non-aqueous active materials for redox flow batteries, and Jarrod identified critical parameters of a new redox flow battery architecture.
October 25, 2016
Jarrod and Fik’s collaborative manuscript is listed as a HOT paper in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A for 2016! Read the paper here!
October 24, 2016
Jarrod won 3rd place in the student poster competition at the 2016 NY-BEST Annual Energy Storage Technology Conference in Syracuse New York. Congratulations!
October 18, 2016
Jarrod co-authors a paper demonstrating unprecedented nonaqueous flow cell performance, published in Energy and Environmental Science. Congratulations!
October 17, 2016
Steven Brown presented his research on electrochemically transforming carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide using carbon-supported gold nanoparticle catalysts to the chemical engineering department at MIT.
October 2-4, 2016
Prof. Brushett, Jarrod Milshtein, and John Barton attend ECS PRiME in Honolulu, HI to present their latest research to the research community.
Prof. Brushett gave 2 presentations: one on JCESR's ability to integrate the abilities of a large pool of researchers across institutions and disciplines for the improvement of energy storage research, and another on tin nanostructures for electroreduction of CO2. Jarrod presented on high-power nonaqueous flow batteries and a techno-economic analysis of flow batteries for grid-scale energy storage. John presented on TEMPO as a model redox molecule for use in flow battery and electrolyte studies.
September 21, 2016
Prof. Brushett attends the 2016 Minority Faculty Development Workshop held at the University of California Berkeley on September 21-24th.
Many thanks to the symposium organizers Dr. Gilda A. Barabino, Dean and Berg Professor at The Grove School of Engineering at CCNY and Dr. Stephanie G. Adams, Dean of the Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology at ODU!
September 20, 2016
Congratulations to Jarrod and John for making the JCESR newsletter following their contribution to the flow battery workshop.
September 15, 2016
Welcome to Dr. Javit Drake, a new visiting scholar in the Brushett group from Procter & Gamble.
September 14, 2016
Prof. Brushett presents our research on nonaqueous redox flow batteries as part of a panel entitled “Examining the Specific Properties of Chemistries and New Technologies Suited to Batteries in Stationary Applications” at The Battery Show 2016 in Novi, MI.
September 12, 2016
Jarrod co-authors a paper estimating prices of redox flow battery electrolytes, published in Journal of Power Sources. Congratulations!
September 2, 2016
Prof. Brushett's collaborative paper on lithium metal growth mechanisms is published in Energy & Environmental Science. Congratulations! See more about this work featured in MIT News.
August 24, 2016
Prof. Brushett's collaborative paper on organic radical cations for charge storage is published in Nature Scientific Reports. Congratulations!
August 24, 2016
Jarrod Milshtein is an inaugural reciepient of the K. M. Abraham Travel Award to attend the 2016 Pacific Rim Meeting on Electrochemical and Solid-State Science! This award was offered through the Battery Division of The Electrochemical Society.
August 22, 2016
Summer student Victoria Yao's research is featured in the MPC newsletter at MIT. Congratulations!
August 20, 2016
Jeff's review is featured in JCESR Research Highlights. Congratulations!
August 16, 2016
Liang’s collaborative paper on molecular dynamics of nafion in nonaqueous solvents is published in Journal of the Electrochemical Society. Congratulations!
August 6, 2016
Jarrod’s collaborative paper on common-ion, multi-electron nonaqueous redox flow batteries is published in Journal of Power Sources. Congratulations!
July 26, 2016
Jarrod’s paper on a model active material for nonaqueous redox flow batteries is published in Journal of Power Sources. Congratulations!
July 15, 2016
Welcome to the newest visiting student in the Brushett Group: Vincent Dieterich from the Technical University of Munich.
June 23, 2016
Kyler's and Thomas's paper on electrocatalytic hydrogenation reactions is published in Chem Sus Chem. Congratulations!
June 17, 2016
Miao's collaboration with the Bazant group on suppressing dendritic growth during electrodeposition is published in Nature's Scientific Reports. Congratulations!
June 10, 2016
The Brushett group welcomes three new undergraduate researchers to the group: Kevin Tenny (University of Kansas), Victoria Yao (Vanderbilt), and Alain Hyacinthe (MIT).
June 2, 2016
Steve gives talks on the impacts of electrocatalyst supports and gold-copper nanotube catalysts at the 229th ECS meeting. Congratulations!
May 31, 2016
Jeff gives a talk on halide substitutions on dimethoxybenzenes at the 229th ECS meeting. Congratulations!
May 1, 2016
Jeff and John's collaborative paper with Etienne is published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Congratulations!
May 1, 2016
Emily's paper on organic active material stability is published in Chemistry of Materials. Congratulations!
April 22, 2016
The Brushett Group wins seed funding for participating in the MIT Green Labs competition and is Green Labs certified. Congratulations!
March 21, 2016
Welcome to our newest group member Sujat Sen!
March 16, 2016
The Brushett Group hosts Matthew Beaton, the Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, and Angela O’Connor, the Chair of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities as part of their visit to the MIT Energy Initiative!
March 15, 2016
Prof. Brushett serves as a panel member for a session on “Energy Storage, Grid, and Transmission” at the 2016 Wind Research Workshop at UMass Lowell. Group alumnus Dr. Apurba Sakti was also a panelist.
March 9, 2016
The Brushett group co-authors a paper with researchers from Pacific Northwest National Lab, Argonne National Lab, Univ. of Michigan, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and United Technologies Research Center! The paper entitled “A symmetric organic-based nonaqueous redox flow battery and its state of charge diagnostics by FTIR” is published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
March 9, 2016
Tom Carney gives a lecture to the MIT Environmental Health & Safety department regarding lab safety culture and best practices in the Brushett Group. His presentation was featured on Twitter (@MITEHS)!
March 8, 2016
Prof. Brushett serves as a panel member for a session on “The Promise of Storage and Innovations in Battery Technologies” at the MIT Energy Conference 2016. The panel discussions were highlighted by MIT News.
March 1, 2016
Emily Carino has obtained a position as a staff scientist in the Electrochemical Discovery Laboratory at Argonne National Laboratory! We wish Emily all the best as she starts her independent research career!
February 25, 2016
Prof. Brushett delivers an invited talk at the Gordon Research Conference on Batteries on mapping out the design space for redox flow batteries.
February 24, 2016
Prof. Brushett has been featured in two recent JCESR videos which describe how the Hub uses the Sprints to accelerate research (General Sprint Video) and our collective efforts on nonaqueous flow batteries based on redox active polymers (Nonaqueous Flow Cell Video).
January 1, 2016
Apurba Sakti has been promoted to the position of Research Scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative! We wish Apurba all the best as he starts his independent research career.
December 10, 2015
Jeremiah Collins presents at 6.UAR poster session on Organic Aqueous Flow Batteries!
December 9, 2015
Welcome to our newest group member McLain Leonard!
December 7, 2015
Liang’s paper “An Investigation of the Ionic Conductivity and Species Crossover of Lithiated Nafion 117 in Nonaqueous Electrolytes” is published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society as part of the Special Focus Issue on Redox Flow Batteries – Reversible Fuel Cells!
December 4, 2015
Jarrod Milshtein presented a talk titled, “Non-Aqueous Flow Battery Design: Exploring Performance Limitations” at the MRS Fall 2015 in Boston!
November 10, 2015
Liang Su gave two presentations entitled, “Performance Metrics and Design Principles for Cost-Effective Separators in Nonaqueous Redox Flow Batteries“ and “High-Throughput Methods to Identify and Probe High-Concentration Redox Electrolytes" at the 2015 AIChE Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City!
November 9, 2015
Andres F. Badel's poster presentation entitled, “An Investigation of Quinoxaline for Redox Flow Battery Applications” at the 2015 AIChE Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City won the 3rd prize in Fuels, Petrochemicals, and Energy II!
October 23, 2015
Prof. Brushett delivers an invited seminar to the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky on realizing low cost electrochemical energy storage through tailored redox active organic molecules.
October 19, 2015
Dr. Apurba Sakti serves as a panel member in the MITEI Annual Research Conference's special session on The Center for Storage, announced as part of MIT's plan for action on climate change.
October 14, 2015
Congratulations to Jarrod Milshtein and Liang Su for presenting their research at the 228th ECS Meeting in Phoenix!
October 14, 2015
Prof. Brushett delivers an invited talk at the Electrochemical Energy Summit 2015 on behalf of the Grid Arc of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research. Prof. Brushett also give an invited talk on our carbon dioxide electrolysis work in the Novel Design and Electrodeposition Modalities session.
October 7, 2015
Prof. Brushett gives an invited talk at the 2015 Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit and Exhibition. The presentation was made in the 2nd International Symposium on Sustainable Secondary Battery Manufacturing and Recycling.
August 31, 2015
Jarrod D. Milshtein, Liang Su, Catherine Liou, Andres F. Badel and Fikile R. Brushett published a paper in Electrochimica Acta!
August 18, 2015
Congratulations to Emily Carino, Liang Su, and Jessie Hsiao! They presented their research at the 250th ACS Meeting in Boston!
August 18, 2015
As part of the 20th anniversary year of the American Chemical Society Scholars Program, Professor Brushett was invited to participate in a symposium entitled ACS Scholars Program Graduates: Rising Stars in Academe where he discussed both his sciences and his personal career trajectory.
August 13, 2015
Professor Brushett sits on panel on Energy Storage for Rural & Agricultural Needs at the JCESR-MSU Symposium in Starkville, MS. Hosted by Mississippi State University, in conjunction with the Argonne National Laboratory led Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, the regional event focused on the challenges and opportunities for advanced in grid-tied energy storage in the Southeast of the USA.
July 26, 2015
Jarrod Milshtein presents a talk and poster at the ECS Conference on Energy Storage and Conversion. He won 2nd place in the poster contest for work entitled Towards Flow Field Design Rules for Redox Flow Batteries!
June 29, 2015
Liang Su, Jeffrey A. Kowalski, Kyler J. Carroll and Fikile R. Brushett are the authors of a recently published book chapter!
June 18, 2015
The "Journal of Materials Chemistry A" recently accepted a Brushett Group article for publication!
June 18, 2015
Prof. Brushett delivers plenary lecture at the 10th Barcelona Global Energy Challenges Conference on Pathway to Low-cost Energy Storage through Electrochemical Technologies!
read more
June 12, 2015
Dr. Sakti and Prof. Brushett weigh in on the Tesla Powerwall. Their opinion piece is highlighted on the front page of MIT Energy Initiative's website!
May 5, 2015
The Brushett Group's work was recently highlighted by the MIT ILP!
May 5, 2015
Dr. Sakti and Prof. Brushett serve as contributing authors in the recently released interdisciplinary MIT study: The Future of Solar Energy!
May 1, 2015
The Brushett Group is happy to welcome Thomas Carney and Chaerin Kim to the group!
April 15, 2015
Liang Su gives an invited talk on A Study on the Conductivity and Selectivity of Lithiated Nafion Membranes in Non-Aqueous Electrolytes.
March 8th, 2015
Jarrod Milshtein updates the JCESR scientific community on the status of non-aqueous redox flow battery prototyping.
March 6th, 2015
Emily’s paper on the electrochemical properties of quinoxaline in propylene carbonate is published in RSC advances. Congrats!
February 25th, 2015
Catherine Liou gives a poster presentation on Aqueous/Non-aqueous Immiscible Redox Flow Batteries.
January 1st, 2015
Congratulations to Lynn Yu on becoming a Burchard Scholar!
read more
December 5th, 2014
Welcome to our newest group members: Michael Orella and Miao Wang!
November 17th, 2014
Liang Su presents at AICHE!
Liang Su gives a talk on identification and optimization of redox electrolytes for non-aqueous flow batteries via combined high throughput screening and electroanalytical approaches. Nice job Liang!
November 4th, 2014
Welcome to Thomas Burger our visiting graduate student from the Technical University of Munich!
October 22nd, 2014
Brushett Group work highlighted by Argonne National Laboratory!
Our paper on synchrotron tomography of lithium-ion battery anodes was featured as a science highlight by ANL’s Advanced Photon Source
October 20th, 2014
Paper with Argonne National Laboratory is published in RSC Advances!
The paper titled “Reduction Potential Predictions of some Nitrogen-Containing Aromatics” with Rajeev Assary and Larry Curtiss of Argonne’s Materials Science Division.
September 16, 2014
Jeff's paper on Pathways to Low-Cost Electrochemical Energy Storage is published in Energy & Environmental Science. Congrats!
September 8, 2014
Liang and Jeff's paper on High Throughput Electrolyte Development For Non-Aqueous Flow Batteries appears in the J. Electrochem. Soc. Congrats!!
September 1, 2014
Fall UROPS have arrived! Welcome new and returning UROPS Lin, Catherine, and Andres!
August 19, 2014
Prof. Brushett gives invited talk at Northeastern University's 2nd annual International Conference on Multi-Scale Renewable Energy Storage
August 17, 2014
Brushett Group Research highlighted by Spectrum!
Our research efforts on redox active organic materials for flow batteries were spotlighted by MIT Spectrum.The story can also be found through the MIT Energy Initiative!
June 5, 2014
Prof. Brushett gives an invited talk at the Beyond Lithium-ion VII Conference
Professor Brushett delivers presentation at the Beyond Lithium-ion VII meeting held at Argonne, IL. The talk focused on the potential of non-aqueous flow batteries enabled by redox-active organic molecules.
May 14, 2014
Prof. Brushett gives an invited talk at the APS User Meeting in Argonne, IL
Professor Brushett delivers presentation at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) User Workshop for 4D Imaging Applications in Dynamic Studies. The talk focused on the utility of synchrotron radiation based microtomography for characterization of lithium-ion battery materials.
May 12, 2014
Congratulations to Catherine Liou!
Catherine Liou is the recipient of the inaugural BP Award for Outstanding performance in research by a junior woman! Catherine received this award as recognition for her efforts on understanding the behavior of immiscible aqueous|organic electrolytes for redox flow batteries. Well done Catherine!
May 12, 2014
Prof. Brushett wins Mohr Award for Teaching!
Professor Brushett is the recipient of the 2014 C. Michael Mohr Outstanding Faculty Award in recognition of excellence in teaching in undergraduate subjects. Based on student voting, Prof. Brushett shares this award with his co-teacher, Professor Doyle, for Fluid Mechanics. Glad to hear the students enjoyed the class!
April 15, 2014
Professor Brushett presents a seminar in the Chemical Engineering department at the University of Missouri
April 1, 2014
Welcome to our new group member Dr. Apurba Sakti!
Apurba comes to the group from Carnegie Mellon University where he received his PhD in Engineering and Public Policy under the supervision of Professors Jeremy Michalek and Jay Whitacre. He will be working on techno-economic modeling of stationary energy storage for grid applications. He will be co-advised by Dr. Raanan Miller at the MIT Energy Initiative
March 26, 2014
Paper with Argonne National Laboratory is published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
The paper titled “Full-Field Synchrotron Tomography of Nongraphitic Foam and Laminate Anodes for Lithium-Ion batteries” in collaboration with Lynn Trahey and Jack Vaughey of Argonne’s Electrochemical Energy Storage Group and Xianghui Xiao of Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source
March 25, 2014
Welcome to our new group member Jarrod Milshtein!
December 4, 2013
Welcome to our newest group members: John Barton, Steven Brown, and Jeff Kowalski!
December 2, 2013
Emily presents at Fall MRS Meeting
Dr. Carino gave a talk regarding her work on the redox kinetics of alkoxybenzene derivatives in non-aqueous electrolytes at the Fall Materials Research Society Meeting held in Boston, MA from Dec. 1-6, 2013.
November 1, 2013
Welcome to our new group member Dr. Kyler Carroll!
Kyler comes to the group from the University of California San Diego where he was a postdoc and later an assistant project scientist working with Professor Shirley Meng. In 2010, he received his PhD in Chemistry from Virgina Commonwealth University under the supervision of Professor Everett Carpenter. Kyler will be working on developing nanomaterials for the electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide.
October 30, 2013
Prof. Brushett gives an invited talk at the ECS Meeting in San Francisco, CA.
Professor Brushett delivers presentation on the investigation of redox-active organic molecules for non-aqueous flow batteries.
September 23, 2013
Welcome to our Fall UROPs Catherine and Raja!
September 16, 2013
Welcome to our new group member Dafu Zhang!
Dafu is a MS student in the Technology and Policy Program who will be developing engineering economic models for grid-scale energy storage systems. Dafu is co-advised by Dr. Raanan Miller of the MIT Energy Initiative.
September 11, 2013
Prof. Brushett gives an invited talk at the ACS Meeting in Indianapolis, IN.
Professor Brushett delivers presentation on non-aqueous redox flow batteries for grid-scale energy storage.
June 10, 2013
Welcome to our summer student Raja!
Raja is an incoming freshman to MIT who will pursue a major in Chemical Engineering. Raja’s work this summer will develop methods for characterization of porous materials for electrocatalysis and charge storage.
May 20, 2013
Welcome to our new group member Dr. Liang Su!
Liang comes to the group from the University of Connecticut where he received his PhD in Chemical Engineering under the supervision of Professor Yu Lei. Liang will be working on the electrochemical engineering for aqueous and non-aqueous redox flow batteries.
May 14, 2013
Paper with Paul Kenis is featured on the cover of Advanced Energy Materials!
The paper titled “The Effects of Catalyst Layer Deposition Methodology on Electrode Performance” in collaboration with Kenis group is featured on the front cover of the journal issue 5, 2013. The image shows the three-dimensional rendering of a gas diffusion electrode, used in fuel cells and CO2 electrolyzers, where a thin, uniform, and crack-free catalyst layer is crucial to efficient operation. Coupled micro-computed X-ray tomography and electrochemical analyses are employed to characterize electrode structure–performance relationships as a function of catalyst layer deposition methodology.
May 13, 2013
Welcome to our new group member Dr. Emily Carino!
Emily comes to the group from Brookhaven National Laboratory where she worked in the Synchrotron Catalysis Consortium at the National Synchrotron Light Source. In 2011, she received her PhD in Analytical Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Dick Crooks at the University of Texas at Austin. Emily will be working on electroanalytical techniques for characterizing charge storage molecules for redox-flow batteries.
April 1, 2013
Seed Funding from MITEI!
The Brushett Group receives seed funding from the MIT Energy Initiative to investigate immiscible organic | aqueous liquid flow batteries for stationary energy storage.
February, 2013
Welcome to our Spring UROPs Meghan and Ali!
December, 2012
Energy Innovation Hub Awarded!
The Department of Energy has awarded a multi-partner team led by Argonne National Laboratory up to $120 million over 5 years to establish a new Batteries and Energy Storage Hub. The Hub, to be known as the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), will combine the R&D firepower of five DOE national laboratories, five universities, and four private firms in an effort aimed at achieving revolutionary advances in battery performance.
