Presently, there is an intense, global effort toward developing durable lithium ion batteries (LIBs) with high energy and power capacity for a wide range of applications, including electric and hybrid vehicles.
Our work provides a path for Kentucky to participate in a robust and growing market for battery components, explore the feasibility of promising new biomass-derived battery materials, and advance our knowledge of specific energy, specific power, cycle life, and cost in energy production and storage.
Over time, this process damages the cathode, causing small fractures to form. As the fractured area grows with the number of charge-and-discharge cycles, degradation in battery energy and power densities becomes more severe, eventually leading to battery failure.
The Kentucky NSF EPSCoR program is exploring innovative approaches to develop revolutionary battery technology with self-healing capabilities, extending the life cycle of lithium-ion batteries.
We collaborate with the faculty and students in the Advanced Membranes and Chemical Biology research pillar groups to evaluate the electrochemical properties of polymorphic lignocellulosic materials generated by chemical perturbation of lignin biosynthesis pathways.
We’re exploring techniques using lithium-active Liquid Metal (LM) based electrodes to develop self-healing materials. In the solid state, the electrode may crack like other solid electrodes. However, the electrode is expected to undergo a solid-to-liquid phase transformation during delithiation and return the electrode to the initial liquid state, thus erasing any cracks.
We will develop nanostructured capacitor materials composed of micro and nano carbon spheres, using low-cost hydrothermal synthesis to produce a sub-micrometer and nanometer sized particles, rods, or tubes from a variety of biomass deconstruction samples.