Graduate Student Seminar

October 24, 2025

12:45 p.m. ET

7500 Wean Hall

Atomic Structure Insights for Advancing Energy Storage and Electronic Materials

As batteries are employed in larger numbers and for increasingly diverse applications, there is a need for electrode materials with improved safety, availability, and cost relative to those in commercial devices. We support the identification of alternative materials by providing insights into the formation, stability, and cycling behavior of Co- and Ni-free electrode materials, as well as how to tune Li-ion transport pathways through composition and processing. In studying early transition metal oxides for fast cycling and cation-disordered rocksalt oxide electrode materials, we identify both average and local structural changes that influence battery cycling behavior.

The local structure methods we use to study battery materials, particularly pair distribution function analysis, are well-established for powdered materials but are not easily applicable to other sample forms, such as thin films. To gain an essential understanding of amorphous and nanocrystalline thin films for electronic applications, we have developed a program to enable pair distribution function analysis of films on single crystal substrates. This program leverages machine learning and the inherent differences in scattering from polycrystalline films and single-crystal substrates. We continue to refine this approach to improve efficiency and fidelity, as well as to probe thinner films.

butalaMegan M. Butala (she/her)
Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Florida

The Butala Research Group focuses on material selection and design by elucidating the relationships between composition, processing, atomic structure, and functional properties, as well as their evolution during dynamic processes. The group is particularly interested in materials for energy storage, information storage, and computing. Before joining the faculty at UF, Megan completed her PhD in Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she investigated the atomic structure and mesoscale origins of high-energy Li-ion battery electrodes in Ram Seshadri’s group. Subsequently, she furthered her expertise in solid-state materials chemistry and atomic structure analysis as a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Her work was recognized with a 2025 NSF CAREER award.

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