#intercalation

Thing is, I chose the title The Some Times because I specifically didn't want to commit to a release schedule (it's not daily, it's not weekly, it's not monthly, it's just sometimes, whenever I get around to it), but I do kinda like the idea of having a baker's dozen issues per year. 13 is a special number to me for a bunch of reasons, and if I had unlimited energy and resources I would totally go for it, but I know in my heart of hearts that I would burn out and give up if I forced myself to stick to such tight deadlines.

Scientists identify another reason why batteries can't charge in minutes

Haste makes waste, as the saying goes. Such a maxim may be especially true of batteries, thanks to a new study that seeks to identify the reasons that cause the performance of fast charged lithium-ion batteries to degrade in electric vehicles.

In new research from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, scientists have found interesting chemical behavior of one of the battery's two terminals as the battery is charged and discharged.

Lithium-ion batteries contain both a positively charged cathode and a negatively charged anode, which are separated by a material called an electrolyte that moves lithium ions between them. The anode in these batteries is typically made out of graphite—the same material found in many pencils. In lithium-ion batteries, however, the graphite is assembled out of small particles. Inside these particles, the lithium ions can insert themselves in a process called intercalation. When intercalation happens properly, the battery can successfully charge and discharge.

So yeah firstly, I would definitely recommend intercalating, I know some people just do it for the points but I think it’s really worth doing in itself. If I hadn’t intercalated, I wouldn’t have realised how much I like research and I wouldn’t be going down the path I am now. It also gave me such a nice year to relax more and have hardly any lectures and all that! I definitely needed that ‘break’ from medicine. This is why I’m going to do an F3 too, what’s the rush. 

But I honestly don’t have that much knowledge on the different types I’m afraid. My uni only offered Masters of either education or clinical research/sciences, so I did the research one. Masters usually gives you more points for foundation or specialty training, but again I don’t think you should choose just based on points (also I think I heard they’re no longer using points from extra degrees for the foundation programme?). 

Hi nony, thanks for your question. 

I’m afraid I’m not going to be much use for you in this question, but hopefully other medblrs out there might know the answer? 

I intercalated within my own uni and we don’t intercalate on courses that are only set up for medics (so i did a masters that is offered by the uni to anyone, and only 6/50 were med students). For my uni to allow us to intercalate, we had to have passed all of our exams on first attempt, but basically anyone that applied could intercalate if the course they wanted to do accepted them as well. 

I honestly don’t know how many you can apply to or how the application process works for the iBSc. I do know that a lot of unis give priority to students studying medicine at their own university, so that makes it harder anyway. 

Graphite intercalation compounds may offer keys to prolonging battery life

In 2012-2013, an international research collaborative discovered a phenomenon that could be observed via optical microscope during the stage transitions in graphite intercalation compounds. It took team leader Dr. Ayrat M. Dimiev six years of further research, including additional experiments at Kazan Federal University, to fully comprehend the driving forces behind the observed phenomena.

The experiments were conducted with participation from Ph.D. graduate Ksenia Shukhina. An important breakthrough came from the use of ultrafast Raman mapping of the graphite surface during stage transitions. The joint Russian-American paper appeared in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C.

Graphite intercalation compounds (GICs) are formed by insertion of certain atomic and molecular species between the graphenelayers of graphite. The resulting compounds possess a range of unique properties, which are not specific for the parent materials. Among the most intriguing properties of GIC is its superconductivity, a discovery that triggered much interest. Depending on the electrochemical potential of the intercalant and the respective charge on the graphene layers, graphite forms structures where one, two or more graphene layers are sandwiched between the two layers of intercalant. The resulting compounds are referred to as stage-1, stage-2, and stage-3 GICs, respectively. Despite intensive and long-lasting research on GICs, the mechanism of the stage transitions remains obscure.

I’m so grateful and overwhelmed for the opportunity to present my research at the Pancreatic Society conference, and even more so when I found out I won the prize for best presentation!