Interaction between mechanical fields (stress, strain, ‚Ä¶) and chemical phenomena is familiar in a number of problems in mechanics of materials. Examples include stress corrosion cracking, dislocation interaction with its local environment, the role of stress in microstructure evolution in alloys, etc. The basic idea is that the contribution of the mechanical fields to the free energy and the chemical potential of certain species can tip the energy landscape to influence the chemical reaction rates in ways that can have practical implications. In this talk, two examples will be presented in exploring the mechanics-chemistry coupling: (i) the role of the mechanical behavior of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) in the performance of electrode materials and (ii) the role of stress in heterogeneous catalysis. In the former, an experimental and modeling effort will be presented to characterize the mechanical behavior of SEI and its implications for surface roughening instabilities during operation of energy storage devices. In the latter, an experimental and computational effort to understand the role of stress in a catalyst on the reaction rates in the context of some well-known reactions will be presented.   

On the Interaction between Mechanics and Chemistry: Two Studies in Electrochemical Energy Storage and Heterogeneous Catalysis

The Virtual Technical Meeting of the Society of Engineering Science 2020 is the first fully virtual meeting of the SES community to envision and connect during the hiatus created by Covid-19, providing a platform for the exchange of ideas, and to showcase the latest research in the field of engineering science.

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