Dr Dominic Spencer-Jolly MChem, DPhil

School of Metallurgy and Materials
Assistant Professor

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 5196
Email: d.h.spencer-jolly@bham.ac.uk
Twitter: @domspencerjolly

Address: Metallurgy and Materials,
Net Shape Building,
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Dominic Spencer-Jolly, DPhil is an Assistant Professor in the School of Metallurgy and Materials and a co-PI of the Energy Materials Group. He joined the University of Birmingham in 2023 after 10 years at the University of Oxford.

Dr Spencer-Jolly studied for a DPhil in Materials under the supervision of Professor Sir Peter Bruce, researching the interface between metal anodes and solid electrolytes in solid-state batteries and winning a Doctoral Prize for his work. Following the completion of his DPhil, he remained in Professor Sir Peter Bruce’s research group, working as a postdoctoral research associate as part of The Faraday Institute’s Solid-State Batteries project (SOLBAT) until his appointment at the University of Birmingham.

Dr Spencer-Jolly’s research at the University of Birmingham has several themes spanning various next-generation battery technologies, with a particular interest in solid-state and semi-solid-state battery materials and interfaces.

Qualifications

Assistant Professor in Metallurgy and Materials:

DPhil, University of Oxford, 2021
MChem, University of Oxford, 2017

Biography

Dominic Spencer-Jolly is an Assistant Professor with more than 6 years of experience in next-generation battery research. He joined the University of Birmingham in 2023 after 10 years at the University of Oxford.

Dominic studied Chemistry at the University of Oxford from 2013-2017, carrying out his final year project on the synthesis of layered transition metal chalcogenides under the supervision of Prof. Simon Clarke. From 2017-2021 he went on to study for a DPhil in Materials under the supervision of Professor Sir Peter Bruce. In this time, Dominic worked on the interface between metal anodes and solid electrolytes in solid-state batteries, winning a Doctoral Prize for his research.

Following the completion of his DPhil, Dominic remained in Professor Sir Peter Bruce’s research group, working as a Post-doctoral Research Assistant as part of The Faraday Institute’s SOLBAT project until his appointment at the University of Birmingham.

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Spencer-Jolly is seeking motivated students for projects in the following areas:

Interfaces in all-solid-state batteries and semi-solid-state batteries
Engineering solid electrolytes and their interfaces for high performance solid-state batteries

If you are interested in studying one of these subject areas, please contact Dr Spencer-Jolly at d.h.spencer-jolly@bham.ac.uk.

For a full list of available Doctoral Research opportunities, please visit our Doctoral Research programme listings.

Research

Dominic Spencer-Jolly’s main research interests are in solid-state ionics for energy devices, with a particular focus on solid-state batteries. This work includes:

Understanding the relationship between microstructure and performance. For example, how can we tailor microstructure of a ceramic electrolyte to enable failure-free fast charge?
Understanding and overcoming chemomechanical failures at electrode/electrolyte interfaces. Electrodes commonly change volume during battery cycling. How can we prevent degradations in performance that happen because of these mechanical changes?
Integrating new materials into electrochemical devices, such as exploring new solid ionic conductors as solid electrolytes, developing new composite electrolytes and electrodes, and pairing solid electrolytes with liquid or gel type electrolytes in semi-solid-state batteries.

To address these questions, Dr Spencer-Jolly’s research uses techniques including electrochemistry, electron microscopy and X-ray Computed Tomography, as well as other spectroscopic and diffraction techniques.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Zhang, S, Hu, B, Geng, Z, Gao, X, Spencer-Jolly, D, Melvin, DLR, Ning, Z, Li, G, Jenkins, M, Wang, L, Gao, H, Pu, SD, Marrow, TJ, Monroe, CW & Bruce, PG 2024, 'Influence of contouring the lithium metal/solid electrolyte interface on the critical current for dendrites', Energy & Environmental Science. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3ee03322h

Ning, Z, Li, G, Melvin, DLR, Chen, Y, Bu, J, Spencer-Jolly, D, Liu, J, Hu, B, Gao, X, Perera, J, Gong, C, Pu, SD, Zhang, S, Liu, B, Hartley, GO, Bodey, AJ, Todd, RI, Grant, PS, Armstrong, DEJ, Marrow, TJ, Monroe, CW & Bruce, PG 2023, 'Dendrite initiation and propagation in lithium metal solid-state batteries', Nature, vol. 618, no. 7964, pp. 287-293. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05970-4

Spencer-Jolly, D, Agarwal, V, Doerrer, C, Hu, B, Zhang, S, Melvin, DLR, Gao, H, Gao, X, Adamson, P, Magdysyuk, OV, Grant, PS, House, RA & Bruce, PG 2023, 'Structural changes in the silver-carbon composite anode interlayer of solid-state batteries', Joule, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 503-514. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2023.02.001

Liu, B, Pu, SD, Doerrer, C, Spencer jolly, D, House, RA, Melvin, DLR, Adamson, P, Grant, PS, Gao, X & Bruce, PG 2023, 'The effect of volume change and stack pressure on solid‐state battery cathodes', SusMat, vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 721-728. https://doi.org/10.1002/sus2.162

Spencer Jolly, D, Perera, J, Pu, SD, Melvin, DLR, Adamson, P & Bruce, PG 2022, 'High critical currents for dendrite penetration and voiding in potassium metal anode solid-state batteries', Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, vol. 26, no. 9, pp. 1961-1968. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-022-05225-8

Spencer jolly, D, Melvin, DLR, Stephens, IDR, Brugge, RH, Pu, SD, Bu, J, Ning, Z, Hartley, GO, Adamson, P, Grant, PS, Aguadero, A & Bruce, PG 2022, 'Interfaces between Ceramic and Polymer Electrolytes: A Comparison of Oxide and Sulfide Solid Electrolytes for Hybrid Solid-State Batteries', Inorganics, vol. 10, no. 5, 60. https://doi.org/10.3390/inorganics10050060

Gao, X, Liu, B, Hu, B, Ning, Z, Jolly, DS, Zhang, S, Perera, J, Bu, J, Liu, J, Doerrer, C, Darnbrough, E, Armstrong, DEJ, Grant, PS & Bruce, PG 2022, 'Solid-state lithium battery cathodes operating at low pressures', Joule, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 636-646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2022.02.008

Rees, GJ, Spencer-Jolly, D, Ning, Z, Marrow, TJ, Pavlovskaya, GE & Bruce, PG 2021, 'Imaging Sodium Dendrite Growth in All-Solid-State Sodium Batteries Using ²³Na T₂-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging', Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 2110-2115. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202013066

Spencer Jolly, D, Ning, Z, Hartley, GO, Liu, B, Melvin, DLR, Adamson, P, Marrow, J & Bruce, PG 2021, 'Temperature Dependence of Lithium Anode Voiding in Argyrodite Solid-State Batteries', ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, vol. 13, no. 19, pp. 22708-22716. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c06706

Ning, Z, Jolly, DS, Li, G, De Meyere, R, Pu, SD, Chen, Y, Kasemchainan, J, Ihli, J, Gong, C, Liu, B, Melvin, DLR, Bonnin, A, Magdysyuk, O, Adamson, P, Hartley, GO, Monroe, CW, Marrow, TJ & Bruce, PG 2021, 'Visualizing plating-induced cracking in lithium-anode solid-electrolyte cells', Nature Materials, vol. 20, no. 8, pp. 1121-1129. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-00967-8

Pasta, M, Armstrong, D, Brown, ZL, Bu, J, Castell, MR, Chen, P, Cocks, A, Corr, SA, Cussen, EJ, Darnbrough, E, Deshpande, V, Doerrer, C, Dyer, MS, El-Shinawi, H, Fleck, N, Grant, P, Gregory, GL, Grovenor, C, Hardwick, LJ, Irvine, JTS, Lee, HJ, Li, G, Liberti, E, McClelland, I, Monroe, C, Nellist, PD, Shearing, PR, Shoko, E, Song, W, Jolly, DS, Thomas, CI, Turrell, SJ, Vestli, M, Williams, CK, Zhou, Y & Bruce, PG 2020, '2020 roadmap on solid-state batteries', JPhys Energy, vol. 2, no. 3, 032008. https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7655/ab95f4

Spencer Jolly, D, Ning, Z, Darnbrough, JE, Kasemchainan, J, Hartley, GO, Adamson, P, Armstrong, DEJ, Marrow, J & Bruce, PG 2020, 'Sodium/Na β″ Alumina Interface: Effect of Pressure on Voids', ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 678-685. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b17786

Kasemchainan, J, Zekoll, S, Spencer Jolly, D, Ning, Z, Hartley, GO, Marrow, J & Bruce, PG 2019, 'Critical stripping current leads to dendrite formation on plating in lithium anode solid electrolyte cells', Nature Materials, vol. 18, no. 10, pp. 1105-1111. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0438-9

Hartley, GO, Jin, L, Bergner, BJ, Jolly, DS, Rees, GJ, Zekoll, S, Ning, Z, Pateman, ATR, Holc, C, Adamson, P & Bruce, PG 2019, 'Is Nitrogen Present in Li₃N·P₂S₅ Solid Electrolytes Produced by Ball Milling?', Chemistry of Materials, vol. 31, no. 24, pp. 9993-10001. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.9b01853

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