Scialog Awardee Receives ARPA-E Grant for Clean Energy Research
Scialog: Advanced Energy Storage awardee Yan Yao, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston, has received an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) OPEN 2021 award for research to develop a high-energy and fast-charging lithium- and transition metal-free battery.
The project grew out of 2017 Scialog collaborative award to Yao, Puja Goyal, Chemistry, Binghamton University, and Jahan Dawlaty, Chemistry, University of Southern California, to investigate the structure-property relationship of quinone crystals. Their work established the design principles of quinone materials as a transition metal-free battery electrode material. The team has written two joint papers: the first is published in the journal of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, and the second one is under review.
Building on top of this basic understanding, Yao’s group at the University of Houston proposed “magnesium-organic” batteries as a greener and domestically available alternative to lithium-ion batteries, in collaboration with Toyota Research Institute North America. Their team’s recent breakthrough in the technology has overcome the energy, and especially power, bottlenecks that have traditionally plagued magnesium batteries, resulting in material-level energy densities of up to 579 Wh/kg and fast charging-discharging capability at 20°C. The new ARPA-E project will build on this latest discovery with the goal of developing a commercially relevant prototype.
“Given growing market pressures in lithium and transition metals, this alternative technology could enhance the nation’s energy supply chain security,” Yao said in a University of Houston release. “If successfully produced at scale, magnesium batteries could be used for fast-charging electric vehicles and grid storage as a replacement for lithium-ion batteries while using the same manufacturing infrastructure. Our team wants to advance this technology on multiple fronts including electrode material and electrolyte optimization, cycle life extension, practical cell design, and scaling-up material production and cell fabrication.”
Yao was the recipient of another Scialog award in 2019 for a project with Neil Dasgupta, Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Alexander Urban-Artrith, Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, to investigate non-lithium based, solid-state batteries. This team is focusing on a porosity-free, solid glass electrolyte that is stable with sodium metal. An electrolyte with those properties would enable solid-state batteries that can cycle sodium metal anodes in a safe and stable manner. This distinct line of investigation, which has relevance for Yao’s new ARPA-E project, is currently being written up into two papers.
In addition to the “high-level connection” between Scialog support and the new ARPA-E grant, Yao said it is beneficial to create networks of researchers whose work is interrelated. “I truly appreciated the support from Scialog awards and the community such awards help to build."
