Benjamin Kleinman – Battery Electrolyte Researcher at UMD

Research

Two ends of the thermometer

The battery in an EV parked through an Arctic night and the battery in an aircraft on a hot runway face opposite problems. Both come down to the electrolyte, the liquid that carries lithium ions between the electrodes. I work on both ends.

−40°C

Fall 2026 – present

In progress

Keeping lithium ions moving in the deep cold

In the cold, electrolytes thicken, ions slow to a crawl and a battery can lose most of its usable capacity. I’m leading a project to design electrolyte additives that change how lithium ions travel through the liquid, with the goal of keeping cells working down to −40 °C.

What I’m doing

Designed a multi-formulation additive study against an industry-standard baseline
Building coin cells and, new this semester, full pouch cells that I fill with electrolyte and seal myself
Testing from 35 °C down to −40 °C
Measuring ionic conductivity, rate capability and cold-weather capacity

Early result: one formulation has outperformed the baseline at every temperature tested so far. More cells are being built to confirm it.

Electrolyte additivesPouch cellsVariable-temp EISCold cycling

Results are unpublished.Ask me about it →

75°C

Summer 2026

Completed

A polymer electrolyte built to take the heat

Batteries in aircraft, EVs and drones can run at 75 °C, where ordinary electrolytes degrade. Polymer electrolytes are safer, but their performance swings with temperature. I developed a thermally stable liquid polymer electrolyte designed to conduct well when things get hot.

What I did

Formulated electrolytes, tuning salt concentration and plasticizers
Built and crimped blocking-electrode coin cells and measured conductivity from 25 °C to 75 °C
Confirmed thermal stability across the full operating range with DSC

Result: conductivity rose steadily with temperature, with no thermal breakdown anywhere in the operating window.

Polymer electrolytesEISDSCArrhenius analysis

Details available on request.Ask me about it →

Why the cold matters

Winter range loss is one of the biggest complaints about EVs, and the same limits ground drones and satellites.

Why the heat matters

Heat shortens battery life and drives the failures that lead to fires. A stable electrolyte gives engineers more margin.

Why both

An electrolyte that works across 115 °C means fewer heaters, less cooling and lighter battery packs.

Award · Fall 2026

ASPIRE Scholar, A. James Clark School of Engineering

ASPIRE (A Scholars Program for Industry-Oriented Research in Engineering) is a competitive, application-based scholarship from the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute. It supports undergraduates doing research with real-world industry relevance under a faculty mentor. I was selected as a scholar for my research in Dr. Peter Kofinas’ Functional Macromolecular Laboratory.

In the lab

From a research paper to a finished cell, by hand

I don’t just run one instrument. I carry each experiment through the whole battery lab workflow, alongside graduate students and faculty.

Read and plan
Review the literature, pick what to test and design the experiment matrix with my mentors.
Formulate
Weigh and mix electrolytes with micropipettes and balances, and dry materials in vacuum ovens.
Prepare components
Cut electrodes and separators to size for coin and pouch cells.
Build in the glovebox
Assemble and crimp coin cells, and fill and seal pouch cells with electrolyte under inert atmosphere. I also help maintain the glovebox itself.
Test
Impedance spectroscopy, charge–discharge cycling, rate capability, thermal analysis and temperature sweeps.
Analyze
Process the data in FML Plot, the analysis app I built, and diagnose cells that misbehave.
Share
Walk professors and graduate researchers through results, and decide together what to test next.

How my cell-building has grown

Summer 2026Coin cells
Crimped blocking-electrode cells to measure how fast ions move through each electrolyte.
Fall 2026Pouch cells
Now building full cells: filling pouches with electrolyte, vacuum sealing and cycling them like real batteries.
NextEverything else
Every week I take on another piece of the lab, and I’m learning every step there is.

Hands-on with

GloveboxCoin cellsPouch cellsElectrolyte fillingVacuum sealingElectrode cuttingSeparator prepCrimperMicropipettesVacuum ovensPotentiostat / EISBattery cyclersDSCEnvironmental chambersSterile techniquePCRGel electrophoresis

From the bench

All photos from my own work

Small labeled vials of electrolyte formulations lined up inside a glovebox, seen through the glovebox window — This fall’s electrolyte formulations inside the glovebox, shot through the window.

Glass vials of polymer electrolyte solutions and plasticizers with handwritten labels — Polymer electrolyte solutions and plasticizers from my summer high-temperature study.

Three labeled coin cells on a white bench — Coin cells for my newest formulation, labeled and ready for testing.

Crimped coin cells on a black bench surrounded by cut separator discs — Summer coin cells, next to separator discs cut for the next batch.

Three small bags on a lab bench, each holding a coin cell labeled with its formulation — Tested cells, bagged and labeled by formulation.

A sealed bag of finished pouch cells on a desk — A finished batch of pouch cells.

Software I built

FML Plot

A desktop app I designed and built for the Functional Macromolecular Lab. Open a raw file from the potentiostat or network analyzer and it converts the file, works out which test it is, reads the key numbers off the data, plots it and writes the analysis report. What used to take an afternoon in spreadsheets now takes a few clicks.

Screens show the real app running on synthetic demo data.

5file formatsBioLogic MPR/MPT, Arbin RES, Touchstone S2P, TXT and CSV, converted automatically

7analysesEIS, temperature sweeps, conductivity, activation energy, cyclic voltammetry, charge–discharge and dielectric

1clickFrom raw file to figures and a written report, without touching the source data

Auto-detection

Reads the file, and the instrument method file if given, to choose the right analysis.

Model-free impedance analysis

Finds each semicircle on the Nyquist plot and reports R_s, R_SEI, R_ct, their capacitances and the Warburg tail, without fitting a circuit model.

Temperature sweeps

Merges any number of files into one tagged dataset, reading each temperature from names like 25C, and overlays them from cold to hot.

Conductivity and activation energy

Plots σ = L / (R·A) against 1000/T and fits the Arrhenius activation energy for every sample, with its error and R².

Charge–discharge

CCCV and cycling plots, discharge capacity per cycle and coulombic efficiency, with the OCV hold removed automatically.

Dielectric resonances

Click S11/S21 peaks to collect resonances, then compute ε_eff = (c / 2·L·FSR)².

Publication-ready figures

A detail slider goes from clean data to every point labeled, and any title, axis or legend can be renamed by clicking it.

Built for the lab

Guided three-step workflow, tooltips on every control, keyboard shortcuts and a light or dark interface.

Python · Tkinter · pandas · NumPy · matplotlib · galvani. Sole developer. Released under the Apache 2.0 license.

Experience

Where I’ve worked

Jun 2026 – now

Undergraduate Researcher

Functional Macromolecular Laboratory · University of Maryland

Lead a low-temperature electrolyte project, testing cells from 35 °C down to −40 °C; a lead formulation has beaten the baseline at every temperature tested.
Engineered a thermally stable liquid polymer electrolyte for batteries running up to 75 °C.
Own the full cell workflow: electrode and separator prep, glovebox assembly and maintenance, testing and analysis.
Designed and built FML Plot as sole developer, automating the lab’s battery and dielectric data analysis.

Aug 2024 – Dec 2025

Undergraduate Researcher, Gene Silencing

FIRE (First-year Innovation & Research Experience) · University of Maryland · Mentor: Dr. Mary Chey

Joined a research team in my first semester to study how DNA regulatory sequences control heritable, mating-induced RNA silencing, where a gene can stay switched off for hundreds of generations.
Worked with CRISPR/Cas9-edited C. elegans strains in which histone (his-64) regulatory sequences were swapped into a fluorescent mCherry reporter.
Genotyped edited worm lines by lysis, PCR and gel electrophoresis, calling edits from expected amplicon sizes; prepared samples for Sanger sequencing and analyzed the alignments in ApE.
Maintained and passaged worm strains and controls with sterile technique, compiled the team’s full-semester gel report, and presented our work in a research video and peer Q&A sessions.

Agarose gel image with labeled lanes for C. elegans isolates, controls and a DNA ladder — Single-worm genotyping gel from October 2025: PCR products from edited isolates, run next to wild-type and reporter controls.

Jun 2022 – Aug 2024

Dental Assistant

Carroll Periodontics & Implant Dentistry

Advanced from observer (2022) to intern (2023) to dental assistant (2024).
Chairside and four-handed assistance during procedures; instrument sterilization under infection-control and HIPAA protocols.

Education

University of Maryland, College ParkB.S. Chemical Engineering, expected May 2028
HonorsASPIRE Scholar (Fall 2026) · Dean’s List
Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community Day SchoolNational Honor Society · President, DJ Club and VR Club

Leadership & service

Philanthropy & Community Service ChairZeta Beta Tau · raised $1,500+ for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals
Sexual Assault Prevention ChairZeta Beta Tau · consent and bystander-intervention training
Co-Founder, Cat’s Closet & Liz’s Locker2023 – 2024 · fundraising for children in foster care
Treasurer, East Asian Media Appreciation Club2024 – 2025

Skills

Battery labGlovebox work and maintenance, electrode and separator prep, coin and pouch cells, electrolyte formulation
CharacterizationEIS and circuit fitting, cycling and rate capability, DSC
BiologyCRISPR/Cas9 strain work, PCR, gel electrophoresis, Sanger sequencing analysis, C. elegans culture
SoftwarePython (pandas, NumPy, matplotlib, Tkinter)
LanguagesEnglish (native), Hebrew (professional)