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Abstract:
The Lithium Resource Research and Innovation Center (LiRRIC) is LBL’s team for all things
lithium. As lithium-based batteries transform transportation, distributed storage, medical
devices, and the internet-of-things, we will need more lithium, higher capacity and density, and
safe and efficient battery recycling. LiRRIC researchers promote integrated battery supply
chains, using upstream manufacturing and recycling processes to inform downstream decisions
in mineral prospecting, metallurgy, and separations. Some of the major outstanding challenges
LiRRIC aims to solve include reducing the environmental and energy impact of lithium
purification from natural resources, increasing battery capacity through materials discovery, and
promoting co-localization of supply chains. All of these challenges require new tools to better
understand how lithium travels from intrusive magma chambers deep in the Earth’s crust to a
lithium iron phosphate cathode in your pocket, and how it perturbs its environment along the
way. This talk will discuss a few of the current methods for characterizing lithium minerals and
materials, and what gaps in our understanding may be addressed with new technical
capabilities.
Short bio:
Michael Whittaker is a research scientist in the Energy Geosciences Division in the Earth and
Environmental Sciences Area and the director of LiRRIC, the Lithium Resource Research and
Innovation Center. Michael’s research interests center on the interfaces between water,
minerals, and life. He received a PhD in Materials Science from Northwestern University where
he studied nucleation and growth mechanisms in biomineral systems using cryogenic X-ray and
electron based characterization. He is currently focused on critical mineral resource utilization
and fundamental mechanisms by which energy and matter can be used more efficiently.