Mitchell Ong

Contact information:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
7000 East Avenue, L-413
Livermore, CA 94550
email: ong7@llnl.gov
phone: 925-423-7592
fax: 925-423-5733

Education:

  • B.S. Chemistry, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), 2003
  • Ph.D Chemistry, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2010

Research:

Currently, my research interests include using first principles molecular dynamics to simulate the formation of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) between the electrolyte and anode in lithium ion batteries. The SEI plays an important role in determining the performance of Li ion batteries and having a better understanding of its composition and evolution will provide new insights into future design improvements for Li ion batteries.

I'm also interested in using ab initio methods to understand and manipulate the electronic and mechanical properties of graphene in order to build new nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). Previously, I have demonstrated through ab initio calculations that piezoelectricity can be engineered into nonpiezoelectric graphene by surface adsorption of atoms. Piezoelectric magnitudes have been shown to be comparable to existing bulk piezoelectric materials such as alpha-quartz. We anticipate that this work will open up the possibility for the creation of new nanoelectromechanical devices such as FETs, relays and sensors, which utilize this engineered piezoelectric effect in graphene to dynamically control mechanical motion at the nanoscale level.

Recent publications: