{"id":14219,"date":"2022-08-25T16:16:42","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T08:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/?post_type=nus-news&p=14219"},"modified":"2024-12-26T10:38:14","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T02:38:14","slug":"discovery-offers-path-to-safer-solid-state-sodium-rechargeable-batteries","status":"publish","type":"nus-news","link":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/news\/discovery-offers-path-to-safer-solid-state-sodium-rechargeable-batteries\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovery offers path to safer, solid-state sodium rechargeable batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A safer, greener, and inexpensive rechargeable battery for powering electric vehicles, mobile phones and many other applications could be a step closer following a breakthrough discovery by NUS researchers.<\/h1>\n

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The team led by Assistant Professor Pieremanuele (Piero) Canepa (Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the College of Design and Engineering, NUS) has identified a new sodium-ion-based solid electrolyte composition that may enable ultrafast battery charge and discharge.<\/p>\n

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The research team from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the College of Design and Engineering, NUS. From left: Aaron Tieu Jue Kang, Research Engineer, Yuheng Li, Research Fellow, Assistant Professor Pieremanuele (Piero) Canepa, Zeyu Deng, Research Fellow<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Their research was recently published in\u00a0Nature Communications<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cConventional and widely used lithium-ion batteries are plagued by safety issues, particularly due to the high flammability of the liquid electrolytes they contain,\u201d Asst Prof Canepa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge has been finding safer solid-state alternatives that can compete in terms of, charging speed, longevity and potentially charging capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safer, high-capacity batteries<\/strong><\/p>\n

Using non-flammable ceramic materials \u2013 known as solid electrolytes \u2013 to create a fully solid-state battery has been widely seen by researchers as the best prospect to deliver safer, high-capacity batteries needed to meet the energy demands of a low carbon future.<\/p>\n

The difficulty has been in developing the right composition of ceramic material able to deliver performance that competes with flammable liquid electrolytes of commercial lithium-ion batteries.<\/p>\n

The novel solid-state composition developed by the NUS team uses a class of solid electrolytes known as NASICONs (or Natrium Super Ionic Conductors) that were first discovered around four decades ago by Hong and Goodenough \u2013the 2019 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.<\/p>\n

In addition to being safer, by using sodium rather than lithium the battery has the added benefit of being cheaper and easier to produce.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the world\u2019s lithium, which is a fairly rare element in itself, is sourced from just a few places \u2013 primarily Chile, Bolivia and Australia,\u201d said Asst Prof Canepa. \u201cUsing a battery that relies on sodium however is much more efficient, as sodium can be extracted easily and even cleanly \u2013 even in a small place like here in Singapore.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Asst Prof Canepa loading one NASICON sample in the X-ray diffractometer<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Advanced approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

The discovery by Asst Prof Canepa\u2019s team was made using a bottom-up approach that involved first developing a theoretical atomic-scale model of the NASICON ceramic composition using high-powered supercomputers and novel algorithms developed by the same team.<\/p>\n

The designed composition was then experimentally synthesised, characterised and tested by the team of Professor Masquelier at the\u00a0CNRS Laboratoire de R\u00e9activit\u00e9 et Chimie des Solides<\/a>, in Amiens, France. The speed of ion motion in the new NASICON composition was then measured at NUS and at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research, in J\u00fclich, Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe method we used enables researchers to accelerate the development and optimisation of new solid electrolytes for all-solid-state batteries, which are crucial to achieving safer batteries with high power density,\u201d Asst Prof Canepa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis advanced approach, we believe, will be critical to developing the next generation of clean energy storage technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Aaron Tieu Jue Kang, Research Engineer, and Research Fellow Zeyu Deng, loading of the NASICON in the low-temperature probe<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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The next stage of the research, which the team are now working on, will focus on developing a full-size solid battery using the NASICON ceramic, and demonstrating its charging and discharging performance.<\/p>\n

Asst Prof Canepa leads the\u00a0Canepa Research Laboratory<\/a>\u00a0at NUS which leverages the power of supercomputers and advanced simulation algorithms to push the boundaries in the transformation and storage of clean energy.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\nCanepa Lab research on all-solid-state-batteries<\/strong> <\/p>\n

In a related study, researchers at the Canepa Lab examined one of the key challenges in the development of all-solid-state batteries: the interface between the alkali-metal anode and the solid electrolyte, which is often unstable and a source of battery failure.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The stability of this interface depends on the properties of the chemically distinct interlayer that forms at the boundary, known as the solid electrolyte interphase.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In their study, recently\u00a0published in the journal PRX Energy<\/a>, the team led by\u00a0Research Fellow Yuheng Li<\/b>, studied the battery interface between a lithium-metal anode and a well-known solid electrolyte, at which a self-limiting and stable interphase forms.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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Research Fellow Yuheng Li who led the study on the development of all-solid-state batteries: the interface between the alkali-metal anode and the solid electrolyte<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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To understand the origin of this stability, the authors used atomic-scale simulations to model the electronic conductivity of the interphase. They found that the interphase is electronically insulating, and thus stops progressive formation of itself and stabilises the interface.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The team says their findings provide design guidelines on stable battery interfaces, helping to accelerate the commercialisation of safe and high-performance all-solid-state batteries.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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Article from College of Design and Engineering, NUS<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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A safer, greener, and inexpensive rechargeable battery for powering electric vehicles, mobile phones and many other applications could be a step closer following a breakthrough discovery by NUS researchers.   The team led by Assistant Professor Pieremanuele (Piero) Canepa (Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the College of Design and Engineering, NUS) has identified<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":14220,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"news_category":[36],"class_list":["post-14219","nus-news","type-nus-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nus-news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/229"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17436,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14219\/revisions\/17436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=14219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}