Updates
Publications
October 4, 2024
Our paper, Unraveling the Fast Ionic Conduction in NASICON-Type Materials, was published in Advanced Energy of Materials.
This work reveals that the ionic conductivity in NASICON-type materials is governed by the interplay between a local factor, the bottleneck volume, and a global factor, Na site ordering. The dominant diffusion mechanism can shift between occupancy-conserved hopping (OCH), preferred when there is strong Na site ordering, and single-ion hopping (SIH), which becomes possible when site ordering is minimal.
Publications
September 19, 2024
Our paper, AlabOS: a Python-based reconfigurable workflow management framework for autonomous laboratories, was published in Digital Discovery.
As these autonomous systems grow in complexity, the demand for robust and efficient workflow management software becomes increasingly critical. We introduce AlabOS, a general-purpose software framework for orchestrating experiments and managing resources, focusing on automated laboratories for materials synthesis and characterization. AlabOS features a reconfigurable experiment workflow model and a resource reservation mechanism, enabling the simultaneous execution of varied workflows composed of modular tasks while eliminating conflicts between tasks.
Seminars
October 4, 2024
Dr. Zeng gave an invited seminar "Autonomous Laboratory for Solid State Materials Synthesis and Accelerated Discovery" at FAMU-FSU, Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering.
Seminars
September 19, 2024
Dr. Zeng was invited to visit and give a seminar at the Earth & Planets Laboratory of Carnegie Science in Washington, DC. She discussed Automation Experimentation with scientists at EPL and had an inspiring tour to see the high-pressure instrumentation.
The brass bell, from the research vessel Carnegie dated back to 1909, was rung before the seminar.
Talks
July 25, 2024
Dr. Zeng gave an invited talk "Accelerating materials discovery for energy storage by AI and robotics-powered laboratories" at the 14th symposium on Energy Storage Beyond Li-Ion (Beyond Lithium XIV) hosted by ORNL in Knoxville, TN.
Publications
July 15, 2024
Our paper, "Direct Lithium Extraction from α-Spodumene through Solid-State Reactions for Sustainable Li2CO3 Production" is published in Inorganic Chemistry.
Spodumene (LiAlSi2O6) is the most favorable mineral for lithium extraction due to its high lithium content and natural abundance. In this work, we proposed and validated a solid-state process that can extract Li directly and effectively from α-spodumene, without the need to transform the natural α-spodumene to β-spodumene. The key is the selection of reactants - Na2CO3 and Al2O3 - that provide sufficient thermodynamic driving force to form Li2CO3 and NaAlSiO4 as the sole products.
Group Activities
July 1, 2024
The Zeng lab is hosting high school students from the Young Scholars Program. Driven by their diverse interests, Zoe, Tommy, and Josh are working collaboratively to make automation tools for solution crystallization-based synthesis.
Awards
April 11, 2024
Dr. Zeng attended the Scialog conference on Automating Chemical Laboratories. She has been selected as a Scialog Fellow.
Talks
March 26, 2024
Dr. Zeng gave an invited talk "Accelerating Inorganic Materials Synthesis and Characterization in Autonomous Laboratories" at the ACerS-MRS Virtual Workshop – Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning for Ceramics and Glasses.
Talks
March 17, 2024
Dr. Zeng gave an invited talk "Advancing inorganic materials synthesis through autonomous laboratories" at ACS Spring 2024 in Symposium: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Experiments, and Digital Twins for Chemical Conversion and Processing.
Seminars
March 7, 2024
Dr. Zeng visited the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University and gave a department seminar. She talked about design principles of high-entropy materials, synthesis of metastable materials, and the promise and challenges of autonomous laboratories.
Publications
February 1, 2024
Our perspective, The rise of high-entropy battery materials, is published in Nature Communications.
By blending diverse elements to increase configurational entropy, one can create high-entropy materials with interesting and beneficial properties. We share our perspectives on how high-entropy materials hold new possibilities for electrochemical energy storage. We elucidate the principles behind high-entropy battery materials and point out the challenges that must be addressed to unlock their utmost potential.
Publications
January 17, 2024
Our paper, Selective formation of metastable polymorphs in solid-state synthesis, is published in Science Advances.
We present a theoretical model designed to predict and guide the initial formation of polymorphs in solid-state reactions. Our findings suggest that reaction energy, an often overlooked factor, plays a significant role in determining which polymorph emerges first, affecting how surface energy facilitates the nucleation of metastable phases. By selecting specific precursors, it's possible to influence the reaction energy, thereby enabling the formation of a desired metastable polymorph.
Publications
November 29, 2023
Our paper, An autonomous laboratory for the accelerated synthesis of novel materials, is published in Nature.
After three and a half years of building the hardware and software, we introduce the A-Lab, an autonomous laboratory for the solid-state synthesis of inorganic powders. This platform uses computations, historical data from the literature, machine learning (ML) and active learning to plan and interpret the outcomes of experiments performed using robotics.
Further reading - A-Lab is featured in news stories:
WIRED: Google DeepMind's AI Dreamed Up 380,000 New Materials. The Next Challenge Is Making Them
MIT Technology Review: Google DeepMind’s new AI tool helped create more than 700 new materials
TIME: Google DeepMind AI Breakthrough Could Help Battery and Chip Development
Chemistry World: Robotic chemistry lab joins forces with Google AI to predict then make new inorganic materials
Publications
October 31, 2023
Our paper, Autonomous and dynamic precursor selection for solid-state materials synthesis, is published in Nature Communications.
We developed an algorithm, ARROWS3, to adaptively optimize the selection of precursors for solid-state reactions. This approach leverages thermochemical data and machine learning to learn from experimental outcomes, significantly reducing the number of experiments needed.
Media Mentions
May 1, 2023
A-Lab featured in LBL.gov, Science, and Popular Science
The A-Lab is an AI-driven robotic lab for materials synthesis and characterization in the solid state. Dr. Zeng has led a team of students and postdocs at LBNL and UC Berkeley since 2020 in building up the lab, its software, and the AI algorithms that help the robots to make better decisions.
In February 2023, A-Lab began its journey of making and discovering novel materials.
Science magazine published an article featuring the completion of the A-Lab.
Popular Science featured the A-Lab and compared it to Tony Stark's lab.
Check out these videos of robotic arms doing experiments in the A-Lab!
Talks
March 28, 2023
Dr. Zeng gave an invited talk "AI-Driven Autonomous Laboratory for Solid-State Synthesis of Inorganic Powder Materials" at the 2023 ACS meeting in Indianapolis.
This talk is part of the Symposium: AI-Accelerated Scientific Workflow.
Credit: Nathan J. Szymanski
Publications
March 2, 2023
Our paper, Adaptively Driven X-Ray Diffraction Guided by Machine Learning for Autonomous Phase Identification, is published on npj Computational Materials.
Shown left: Conventional solid “ordered” electrolyte made of just one type of metal (blue spheres). The movement of lithium ions (yellow sphere) is slow and limited, thus hampering ion conductivity and battery performance. (Gray spheres represent oxygen.) Shown right: Ions move significantly faster through “disordered” solid electrolyte: Mixing different types of metals (blue, teal, and navy spheres) creates new pathways – much like the addition of expressways on a congested highway – through which lithium ions can move quickly through the electrolyte. (Credit: Jenny Nuss/Berkeley Lab)
Media Mentions
February 23, 2023
On the Road to Better Solid-State Batteries
Berkeley Lab article highlights the discovery of high-entropy solid electrolytes, work led by Dr. Zeng and Prof. Gerbrand Ceder.
More media mentions can be found at
People
January 1, 2023
Dr. Zeng is appointed as a Staff Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at LBNL.
Effect of structural distortions on alkali site energies and percolation.
Publications
December 23, 2022
Dr. Zeng's paper, High-Entropy Mechanism to Boost Ionic Conductivity, is published in Science.
This work reveals a mechanism for enhancing ionic conductivity by embracing compositional disorder in high-entropy materials.
A related perspective, Embracing Disorder in Solid-State Batteries, written by Dr. Botros and Dr. Janek was published in the same issue in Science.
Conferences
December 1, 2022
Dr. Zeng attended the 2022 MRS Fall meeting in Boston, where she gave a talk on "A General Mechanism to Increase Ionic Conductivity by High Entropy".
She served as a session chair in Symposium: EN03: Beyond Li-Ion Batteries—Low Cost Alternatives Based on Other Chemistries.
Awards
March 28, 2022
Dr. Zeng received the Gold Medal from Ms. Barbara Hanley for the 2020 Graduate Research Excellence Awards from the Department of Mining and Materials Engineering at McGill University.
Awards
August 20, 2019
Dr. Zeng received the 2019 Gordon Ritcey Hydrometallurgy Award from Dr. Mike Dry at the Conference of Metallurgists in Vancouver, Canada.