Pieremanuele Canepa

I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering at the National University of Singapore. I was a Ramsay Memorial fellow at the University of Bath (United Kingdom), and a Postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the guidance of Prof. Gerbrand Ceder.

The nature of my research work is multidisciplinary covering the fields of materials science, chemistry, computational materials science, and incorporate foundations of thermodynamics, electrochemistry, theoretical chemistry and spectroscopy; to advance the understanding and discovery of novel materials and materials for energy storage and conversion. Particular emphasis is given to ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) and high-throughput density functional theory (DFT) methods. These techniques are utilized to unravel a variety of relevant problems in novel high-energy batteries, such as, the interfaces between electrolytes and electrodes, the intercalation of ions in electrodes, and the compositional phase diagrams of these materials. My research leverages the synergy between high-throughput computations and the power of supercomputers and scientists for the discovery of novel materials and molecules. The models derived from our research contribute to the rational design of new materials for clean energy technologies, such as electrode materials for batteries, ionic conductors and liquid electrolytes for energy-dense and sustainable energy storage systems.

Education

• PhD University of Kent (2008 — 2012)
• M.Sc. Università degli Studi di Torino (2006 — 2008)
• B.Sc. Università degli Studi di Torino (2003 — 2006)

Companies

• Assistant Professor National University of Singapore (2018)
• Postdoctoral Fellow Berkeley Lab (2015 — 2018)
• Postdoctoral Research Associate Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (2013 — 2015)
• Post Doctoral Research Associate Wake Forest University (2011 — 2013)

SELECTED AWARDS & HONOURS

• 2019 Nominated as Outstanding Reviewers for Journal of Materials Chemistry A
• 2019 Awarded the NRF Fellowship Class 2020, with a budget of S$ 3M.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Clean and Sustainable Energy Storage and Conversion
• ab initio Molecular Dynamics (AIMD)
• Density Functional Theory (DFT)
• Thermodynamics

Selected Publications:

• P. Canepa, S.-H. Bo, S. G. Gopalakrishnan, W. D. Richards, Y. Wang, S. G. Gopalakrishnan and G. Ceder, High Magnesium Mobility in Ternary Spinel Chalcogenides, Nat. Commun. 8, 1759 (2017).
• P. Canepa, S. G. Gopalakrishnan, D. C. Hannah, R. Malik, M. Liu, K. Gallagher, K. Persson and G. Ceder, Odyssey of Multivalent Cathode Materials: Open Questions and Future Challenges, Chem. Rev. 117 (5), 4287-4341 (2017).
• P. Canepa, J. A. Dawson, S. G. Gopalakrishnan, J. M. Statham, S. C. Parker, and M. S. Islam, Particle Morphology and Lithium Segregation to Surfaces of the Li7La3Zr2O12 Solid Electrolyte, Chem. Mater. 30 (9), 3019–3027 (2018).
• P. Canepa, S. Jayaraman, L. Cheng, N. N. Rajput, S. G. Gopalakrishnan, L. A. Curtis, K. A. Persson and G. Ceder, Elucidating the structure of the magnesium aluminum chloride complex electrolyte for magnesium-ion batteries, Energy Environ. Sci. 8, 3718 (2015).
• P. Canepa, S. G. Gopalakrishnan, R. Malik, S. Jayaraman, Z. Rong, K. R. Zavadil, K. A. Persson and G. Ceder, Understanding the Initial Stages of Reversible Mg Deposition and Stripping in Inorganic Non-Aqueous Electrolytes, Chem. Mat. 27, 3317 (2015).
• S. G. Gopalakrishnan, P. Canepa, W. D. Richards, R. Malik and G. Ceder, Role of structural H2O in intercalation electrodes: the case of Mg in Nanocrystalline Xerogel-V2O5, Nano. Lett. 16, 2426 (2016).
• S. G. Gopalakrishnan, P. Canepa, A. Abdellahi, A. Urban, R. Malik and G. Ceder, The Intercalation phase diagram of Mg in V2O5 from first- principles, Chem. Mat. 27, 3733 (2015)
• M. Liu, Z. Rong, R. Malik, P. Canepa, A. Jain, G. Ceder and K. A. Persson, Spinel Compounds as Multivalent Battery Cathodes: A Systematic Evaluation Based on ab initio Calculations, Energy Environ. Sci. 8, 964 (2015).
• P. Canepa, N. Nijem, Y. J. Chabal and T. Thonhauser, Diffusion of Small Molecules in Metal Organic Framework Materials, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 026102 (2013)