At 15:00 on March 11, 2026, the School of Energy and Mechanical Engineering, the International Institute of Electrochemical Energy Storage, and the Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Science and Technology Development Strategy for Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality of Nanjing Normal University successfully held a high-end academic lecture in the Multi-function Hall on the fourth floor of Houde Building, Xinbei District. Dr. Simon Fleischmann, Principal Investigator at Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) and Leader of an Independent Research Group at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany, was invited to deliver an academic report entitled Electrochemistry Under Confinement: Leveraging Nanoscale Environments to Control Ion-Solvent-Electrode Reactivity in Battery Materials.

Dr. Simon Fleischmann has been engaged in the field of electrochemical energy storage for many years and is a renowned scholar in the research of nanoconfined electrochemical interfaces. He obtained his PhD from the INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials and Saarland University, and carried out postdoctoral research at North Carolina State University (USA) and Université Paul Sabatier (France) successively. Now he has established and led an independent research team at HIU and KIT in Germany. He received competitive early-career funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research through the NanoMatFutur program, and serves as a core Principal Investigator within the Post-Lithium Storage (POLiS) Cluster of Excellence. He also acts as a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Energy Storage Materials, wielding important international influence in the field of electrochemical energy storage materials research. His research focuses on the effects of nanoconfinement on charge storage mechanisms and electrochemical reactivity in layered and two-dimensional electrode materials. He innovatively proposed a new conceptual framework linking capacitive and Faradaic charge storage through electrolyte confinement effects and solvent co-intercalation mechanisms. Relevant research results have been published in top international journals such as Nature Energy, Energy Environ. Sci., ACS Nano and Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., laying an important theoretical foundation for the design and development of next-generation battery materials.

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In the report, Dr. Simon Fleischmann gave a systematic and in-depth explanation around the core research of electrochemistry under nanoconfinement. He first pointed out that the nanoscale confined environment plays a key regulatory role in ion transport, solvation structure and electrochemical reaction mechanisms, which is a core breakthrough for the research and development of new electrochemical energy storage systems. He then introduced in detail the research platform based on layered inorganic electrode materials built by his team. This platform achieves precise regulation of the interlayer nanoconfined environment through chemical functionalization with molecular pillars, providing an ideal model for exploring the fundamental ion storage mechanisms that are inaccessible in conventional electrode materials. The report focused on the important phenomenon of solvent co-intercalation, which challenges the traditional theory of ion insertion in batteries, and elaborated on how the geometric structure and chemical environment of nanoconfinement regulate the solvent co-intercalation behavior and its direct impact on battery capacity, reaction kinetics and charge transfer resistance. It also revealed the continuous transition law of capacitive and Faradaic charge storage mechanisms dominated by the degree of electrolyte confinement, providing a brand-new design principle for realizing high-power operation and improved low-temperature performance of batteries. In addition, he shared the research methods and practical experience of his team in analyzing reaction mechanisms using advanced characterization techniques such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, EQCM, dilatometry and operando XRD.

The whole report featured cutting-edge content, unique perspectives, and both theoretical depth and experimental innovation, which aroused a warm response from the participating teachers and students. In the interactive session, teachers and students conducted in-depth discussions with Dr. Simon Fleischmann on issues such as nanoconfined environment regulation strategies, suppression and utilization of solvent co-intercalation, and application of in-situ characterization technologies, creating a strong academic atmosphere on site. This report not only enabled teachers and students to deeply understand the research frontier and development direction of electrochemistry under nanoconfinement in the field of energy storage batteries, but also built a bridge of international academic exchanges for the relevant research teams of our college, which is of great significance for promoting the discipline construction, scientific research innovation and international cooperation in the field of electrochemical energy storage of our college.