Energy storage is crucial for the successful transition to renewable energy. Yet lithium-ion batteries have major limitations. Demand for lithium has increased exponentially, but production has not kept pace. Extracting lithium by brine mining is a long, costly, energy-intensive, and dangerous process with significant environmental impact. Access is difficult as most lithium mines are in South America.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras developed a rechargeable iron ion battery to replace lithium. It uses mild steel as the anode and can store a high amount of energy. The iron battery withstood 150 cycles of charging and discharging under controlled conditions. After 50 cycles, the battery had 54 percent capacity retention. (more…)

Venkataraman Thangadurai, University of Calgary chemistry professor and associate head.

University of Calgary Chemistry Professor Venkataraman Thangadurai’s background in solid-state batteries, solid oxide fuel cells, proton conducting SOFCs, and gas sensors have made him a source for information over the years. Because of this, the longtime ECS and battery division member has been invited to present several presentations this spring.

International Battery Event

This March,  Thangadurai will speak at the International Battery Seminar & Exhibit taking place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The annual event showcases state of the art energy storage technology developments for consumer, automotive, military, and industrial applications, as well as offer attendees insights from guest speakers sharing their thoughts on significant material advancements, product development, manufacturing, and application of battery systems and enabling technologies.

ECS Biannual Meetings

Similar to the International Battery Seminar & Exhibit, ECS hosts biannual meetings on a broader scale, including a diverse number of topics in the electrochemical, solid state science, and technology field, of which Thangadurai has been a recurring speaker of.

In 2018, he attended AiMES as an invited guest speaker presenting his work, “Chemical and Electrochemical Stability of Fast Lithium Ion Conducting Garnet-Type Metal Oxides in H₂o, Aqueous Solution, CO₂, Li and S,” available in ECS Meeting Abstracts.

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Shirley Meng

Inspired by her father, motivated by curiosity, and driven by her passion for connecting people, Shirley Meng, a professor of nanoengineering at the University of California, San Diego, discovered her love for science.

Although, she had originally thought her interests would lead her to pursue another path, a career in law.

However, because of the instability of the law system in China, where Meng is originally from, her father encouraged Meng to pursue other opportunities. That’s when she began considering a career in the sciences. (more…)

Interested in presenting at The Electrochemical Conference on Energy and the Environment (ECEE 2019): Bioelectrochemistry and Energy Storage meeting in Glasgow, but missed the abstract deadline? Submit an abstract for a poster presentation on bioelectrochemistry and energy storage!

The purpose of the ECEE meetings is to focus on electrochemical energy conversion/storage materials, concepts, and systems, with the intent to bring together scientists, engineers, and researchers to share results and discuss issues on these topics.

The abstract deadline is May 31.

Submit now!

The 2018 San Francisco Section Daniel Cubicciotti Student Award Goes to Yuzhang Li!

Yuzhang Li is a PhD student working with Professor Yi Cui on next-generation energy storage technologies at Stanford University. His research approach seeks to tackle problems from both an applied and fundamental perspective, which is necessary for the development of high energy density batteries. (more…)

Abstract submission for ECEE 2019 is now open!

Join us at the Electrochemical Conference on Energy and the Environment (ECEE 2019): Bioelectrochemistry and Energy Storage, which will be held in Glasgow, Scotland from July 21-26, 2019 at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Center.

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Photo Credit: www.HydroQuebec.com

Hydro-Québec (an ECS institutional member) and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory have announced a breakthrough in the lithium-ion battery materials field, publishing their research results in the Journal of Power Sources. Using a cathode made with new high voltage safe materials, the researchers have achieved a world first: building a 1.2 Ah lithium-ion cell with a voltage of 5 V.

“With the high voltage of this new cell, we can reach a very high energy density,” says Karim Zaghib, General Director of the Center of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage. “This highly desirable property can improve batteries used in a wide range of applications.” Army Research Laboratory scientists Jan Allen and Richard Jow, also inventors of this high voltage cathode material, believe that the high cell voltage can, in addition to enabling high energy density, improve the design of devices.

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used to power many electronic devices, including smartphones, medical devices and electric vehicles. Their high energy density, excellent durability and lightness make them a popular choice for energy storage. In response to the growing demand for their use in a wide range of products, there are many teams working to improve their storage capacity. In particular, there is great interest in developing new compounds that could increase energy storage capacity, stability and lifespan. That is why the innovation announced today has such a strong commercial potential.

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By: Bob Marcotte, University of Rochester 

In order to power entire communities with clean energy, such as solar and wind power, a reliable backup storage system is needed to provide energy when the sun isn’t shining and the wind doesn’t blow.

One possibility is to use any excess solar- and wind-based energy to charge solutions of chemicals that can subsequently be stored for use when sunshine and wind are scarce. At that time, the chemical solutions of opposite charge can be pumped across solid electrodes, thus creating an electron exchange that provides power to the electrical grid.

The key to this technology, called a redox flow battery, is finding chemicals that can not only “carry” sufficient charge, but also be stored without degrading for long periods, thereby maximizing power generation and minimizing the costs of replenishing the system.

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The Journal of The Electrochemical Society Focus Issue on Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: Materials, Mechanisms, Modeling, and Applications is now complete, with 18 open access papers published in the ECS Digital Library.

“Lithium sulfur batteries are in the focus of research at many hundreds of prominent research groups throughout the world and at several industrial firms as well,” says JES Technical Editor Doron Aurbach in the issue’s preface. “These batteries are highly attractive due to their theoretical high energy density, that may be 4–5 times higher compared to that of Li-ion batteries.”

The focus issue includes invited papers and selected papers from the 2017 Li-SM³ Conference.

“The important technical challenges of Li-S batteries are dealt with in the papers of this focus issue, including development of new sulfur cathodes, protected Li anodes, new electrolyte systems including solid state electrolytes, study of degradation mechanisms, in-situ spectroscopic efforts, surface and structural aspects,” Aurbach continues. “This focus issue of JES is indeed a very suitable epilogue for a very successful and fruitful meeting on a very “hot” topic in modern electrochemistry in general and advanced batteries in particular.”

Read the full JES Focus Issues on Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: Materials, Mechanisms, Modeling, and Applications.