Dynamic alkali metal alloys for low cost, high performance energy storage

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Safe, low cost, and scalable energy storage is critical to the green economy, the environment, and society. Lithium-ion batteries are the dominant energy storage technology today. Major advancements are required for battery-enabled renewable energy to compete with fossil fuels for grid storage, in long distance transportation, industrial processes, and in harsh environments. Many 'beyond lithium-ion' electrochemical energy storage technologies are emerging, most of which depend on alkali-metal alloys. There are two core problems: 1) alkali-metal electrochemical reactivity is not fully understood. Reaction pathways and products vary with approach - predictions from first principles calculations do not always agree with experimental measurements of materials produced using thermal or electrochemical methods (which also differ from each other). Thermodynamic and kinetic barriers can lead to metastable or disordered phases which can be difficult to experimentally (or computationally) reproduce. 2) The structural, chemical, and mechanical properties of oxygen-, water-, and sometimes nitrogen-reactive alloys are difficult to measure, and feed back in to improved models and improved devices. This program leverages my unique suite of advanced characterization methods, academic collaborations, industrial partners, and support from the National Research Council to unite electrochemical and thermal methods. Requested funding will enable two graduate students to join our team of research and technical staff, postdoctoral fellows, co-op and high school students pursuing fundamental insight in to lithium and sodium-metal reactivity and robust measurements of alloy physical properties. Graduate students will use my variable-temperature electrochemical, structural, and mechanical test platform to quantify, understand, and overcome kinetic and thermodynamic barriers, create new metastable materials, identify and explain condition-dependent reaction pathways, and measure physical properties. Advanced alloys will be used to develop new experimental methods and improved energy storage devices. This program combines foundational multidisciplinary training, cutting-edge instrumentation, and clear routes to industrial and societal impact to prepare graduates to drive the clean energy and materials revolutions we so desperately need.