Organic and Polymer Structure Engineering for Na-ion and Multivalent Metal Batteries

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Energy storage at an affordable cost has emerged as one of the challenging issues for the energy sector, being critical for a wide range of applications ranging from electric vehicles to grid storage of renewable electricity. The high cost and scarcity of lithium and transition metal (Cobalt) resources has become a bottleneck for the development of Li-ion batteries for these larger capacity applications of energy storage and transport propulsion. Developing efficient lithium-free and transition metal-free battery technology with affordable and sustainable resources is an important research topic for advanced energy storage. This project explores battery systems beyond Li-ion batteries with emphasis on sodium-ion batteries and other potential high energy chemistries based upon magnesium (Mg) and aluminum (Al). A key enabling factor of this project is the implementation of lightweight, abundant, inexpensive, sustainable, and recyclable metal-free organic/polymer materials as promising cathodes for Na/Mg/Al batteries. Innovative structure design and facile fabrication approaches will be studied to enable the high energy, fast charge, and long lifetime batteries. Research activities will involve the training of graduate students, undergraduate researchers, and high school students, and will promote gifted minority students into the energy science ranks. A key goal of this project is to integrate research and education of high school, undergraduate, M.S. and Ph.D. students. The combined research and educational activities will provide a strong platform to train students with computational and hands-on skills in material science, chemistry, and energy science fields.The objective of this project is to seek fundamental understanding of the material structure -electrochemical performance relationships in Na-ion and multivalent metal (Mg/Al) batteries at the molecular and device levels. This project integrates multidisciplinary research, education, and outreach for sustainable energy storage beyond Li-ion batteries. Novel organic materials and polymers will be designed and synthesized with multi-functional reaction centers in one molecular unit to enhance the battery energy capacity. Extensive structural characterizations including in situ X-ray diffractometry, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and pair distribution function analysis, will be performed to understand how the structure of organic/polymer materials determines the cation insertion/extraction mechanism and kinetics. The knowledge gained in these studies will be used to design and fabricate new organic/polymer materials to optimize the battery performance. These novel structures will significantly enhance the utilization, reaction kinetics, and stability of organic/polymer materials during charge/discharge cycles, thus improving overall energy density, power density, and cycle life. The investigation of organic/polymer materials will also include the investigation of ultralow temperature organic batteries to extend the applications of these sustainable energy storage devices in extremely cold areas such as South/North poles, and outer space.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.