UCLA Researchers Collaborate in DOE-Funded Coalition to Innovate Aqueous Battery Technology for Electrical Grids
A trio of UCLA faculty members are part of a U.S. Department of Energy-funded initiative to develop next-generation batteries. The effort aims to revolutionize grid-scale energy storage in support of sustainable energy sources, such as solar and wind, which can be scarce and intermittent.
Headquartered at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the newly launched Aqueous Battery Consortium brings together 31 top energy storage technology experts as co-principal investigators from 15 research institutions across the U.S. and Canada. UCLA is projected to receive $4.73 million over nearly 4 1/2 years from the combined five-year, $62.5 million DOE award.
The UCLA research team is co-led by Sarah Tolbert, a distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry and materials science and engineering; Bruce Dunn, a distinguished professor of materials science and engineering and bioengineering, and the Nippon Sheet Glass Company Professor of Materials Science; and Yuzhang Li, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. All three researchers are also members of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA.
Launched Sept. 3, the consortium was established as part of the DOE’s Innovation Hubs program, which seeks to address critical challenges in energy science and engineering through collaborative research and innovation. In particular, the coalition is tasked with overcoming the challenge of storing environmentally safe and inexpensive electricity on the grid at capacity levels that conventional lithium-ion batteries cannot meet.
The team’s approach will be to develop battery chemistries based on nontoxic, naturally abundant oxides found in water and earth, which can scale with the enormous capacity needed for grid-scale energy storage globally. Ultimately, the researchers said they hope to support electricity systems with the goal of net-zero carbon emissions.