STTR Phase I: Realizing the Untapped Potential of Multielectron Insertion/Extraction Reactions in Lithium Ion Batteries

这一小型企业技术转移研究(STTR)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是将一种高容量储能材料商业化，该材料可能对电动汽车、电网级储能和便携式电子设备产生影响。电动汽车续航里程和网格级储能能力的增加将导致电动汽车、可再生能源和电池的更大市场渗透率，并带来环境效益。这个小型企业技术转移研究(STTR)第一阶段项目旨在开发一种锂离子嵌入阴极，该阴极可以在每个还原-氧化中心可逆地访问多个锂离子，从而大幅提高储能能力。问题是，在商业上可以买到的锂离子电池，如商业上占主导地位的锂钴氧化物及其衍生品，仍然被限制在每个氧化还原中心只有一个锂，这对性能建立了一个不变的限制。事实上，这些材料很可能代表了只涉及一种锂的插层反应的极限。最近发现的Zeta-V2O5多晶型表明，每个钒的氧化还原中心可以可逆地嵌入多个锂离子，达到显著的容量，而不会因为结构稳定性差而损失容量。事实上，Zeta-V2O5在充放电过程中表现出接近零的膨胀/收缩。该项目将集中于(1)高通量筛选成分空间，以提高额定电压，(2)迭代硬币电池的制造和表征，以将成分与性能相关联，以及(3)电池故障的尸检分析。基于锂离子Zeta-V2O5的电池原型将展示钒5+/4+和4+/3+氧化还原电偶的高度可逆性，接近440 mAh/g的理论容量。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) project is the commercialization of a high-capacity energy storage material with potential impact for electrified vehicles, grid-level energy storage, and portable electronic devices. Increased electric vehicle range and grid-level energy storage capacity would lead to greater market penetration of electrified vehicles, renewable energy sources, and batteries, with environmental benefits. This Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I project aims to develop a lithium ion intercalation cathode that can reversibly access more than one lithium ion per reduction-oxidation center, boosting energy storage capacity substantially. The problem is that after nearly a decade commercially available lithium ions batteries such as the commercially dominant lithium cobalt oxide and its derivatives are still limited to just one lithium per redox center, which establishes an immutable constraint on performance. In fact, these materials likely represent the ultimate limit for intercalation reactions involving just one lithium. The recently discovered zeta-V2O5 polymorph demonstrates the reversible intercalation of multiple lithium ions per vanadium redox center reaching remarkable capacities without a loss in capacity due to poor structure stability. In fact, zeta-V2O5 demonstrates near zero expansion/contraction during charging and discharging. This project will focus on (1) a high throughput screening of compositional space with the aim of increasing the nominal voltage, (2) iterative coin cell fabrication and characterization to correlate composition to performance, and (3) post-mortem analysis of cell failure. Lithium ion zeta-V2O5 based battery prototypes will demonstrate the highly reversible accessibility of vanadium 5+/4+ and 4+/3+ redox couples, approaching the 440 mAh/g theoretical capacity.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.