Dr Pengcheng Zhu

BSc, MSc, PhD

  • Lecturer in Sustainable Energy Engineering
Publications
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Pengcheng Zhu

Background:

Dr Pengcheng Zhu joined the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering at Loughborough University as a Lecturer in Sustainable Energy Engineering in November 2025. His research takes place at the intersection of structural materials design, advanced manufacturing, and multi-scale characterisation, with applications across electrochemical energy storage technologies, including lithium-ion, sodium-ion, solid-state batteries, and so on.

Before joining Loughborough University, he held research positions at the University of Warwick (2020–2021) and the University of Birmingham (2021–2024), where he worked on lithium-ion battery recycling and manufacturing. He then served as a Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford, focusing on electrode microstructure characterisation for solid-state and lithium-air batteries.

Pengcheng welcomes inquiries from motivated PhD candidates. To express interest, please email your CV and a brief statement of research interests.

Qualifications:

  • PhD, University of Liverpool
  • MSc, University of Liverpool
  • BSc, Suzhou University of Technology

 

Outline of main research interests: 

Developing high-performance electrochemical energy technologies, including lithium-ion, sodium-ion, solid-state batteries, and so on.

  • Electrode architecture engineering
  • Scalable manufacturing of high-mass-loading electrodes
  • Electrode characterisation using Plasme-FIB and X-ray CT
  • Image-based modelling and microstructure–performance simulation (COMSOL)
  • Current collector surface and structure engineering

Grants and contracts:

  • 2023-2024 STFC Early Career Research Award, Multi-scale structural modification on Cu current collectors for anode-free Li metal batteries
  • 2020 Lean Launch Programme, Commercialisation of an electrochemical sensor prototype
  • 2019 EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account, Development of an electrochemical sensor prototype based on metal foam electrodes

Selected publications:

  • Zhu, P.*, Boyce, A., Randjbar, S., Dong, B., Chen, Y., Guan, S., Crozier, M., Chiu, Y., Davenport, A., Jervis, R., Shearing, P., Esfahani, R., Slater, P., Kendrick, E.* (2024). A Groovy Laser Processing Route to Achieving High Power and Energy Lithium-ion Batteries, Energy Storage Materials, 69, 103373. doi.org/10.1016/j.ensm.2024.103373
  • Zhu, P.*, Driscoll, H. E., Dong, B., Sommerville, Zorin, A. R., Slater, P., & Kendrick, E.* (2023). Direct reuse of Aluminium and Copper current collectors from spent lithium-ion batteries, Green Chemistry, 25, 3503-3514. doi.org/10.1039/d2gc03940k
  • Zhu, P.*, Slater, P., & Kendrick, E.* (2022). Insights into architecture, design and manufacture of electrodes for Lithium-ion batteries, Materials & Design, 223, 111208. doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2022.111208
  • Zhu, P.* & Zhao, Y. (2021). A limiting current sensor based on porous Ni for detection of ferricyanide and ferrocyanide in aqueous solutions, Electrochimia Acta, 385, 138428. doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2021.138428
  • Zhu, P., Gastol, D., Marshall, J., Sommerville, R., Goodship, V. & Kendrick, E.* (2020). A review of current collectors for Lithium-ion batteries, Journal of Power Sources, 485, 229321. doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2020.229321
  • Zhu, P., Wu, Z. & Zhao, Y. * (2019). Hierarchical porous Cu with high surface area and fluid permeability, Scripta Materialia, 172, 119-124. doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2019.07.019

External collaborators:

Academic:

  • University of Birmingham
  • University of Oxford
  • Queen Mary University of London
  • University College Dublin

Industry:

  • Manufacturing Technology Centre, Coventry
  • UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC)
  • Agratas 
  • Inition Energy

External roles and appointments:

  • Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford
  • Visiting researcher, School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham