Scientists at Gdańsk University of Technology are developing high-power batteries intended to power, among other things, drones and cars. These batteries are designed to be durable and environmentally friendly.
In a press release, the university’s press office stated that the project is being carried out by a research team from the Faculty of Chemistry at Gdańsk Tech, led by Prof. Monika Wilamowska-Zawłocka.
The batteries are intended to be durable, stable during charging and discharging, and manufactured with a reduced use of critical raw materials, making them more eco-friendly. They are designed to power, for example, drones or cars.
Prof. Monika Wilamowska-Zawłocka, Dr. Ing. Gifty Sara Rolly, Dr.Ing. Balanand Santhosh, students: Jakub Olszewski, Emilia Bielska and Kacper Chodziński; Photo credit: Gdansk University of Technology, press materials
“In our next-generation lithium-ion batteries, we will use silicon oxycarbides (SiOCs) as matrices for nanoparticles that form alloys with lithium, such as elemental silicon or tin,” said Professor Wilamowska-Zawłocka, as quoted in the release.
She explained that SiOCs are polymer-derived ceramic (PDC) materials, which allow for synthesis methods that ensure high uniformity of metal-ceramic nanocomposites.
“Silicon oxycarbides not only provide good mechanical and chemical durability, but they are also electrochemically active with respect to lithium ions, allowing us to obtain anode materials with much higher electrical capacity than the commercially used and ‘critical’ natural graphite,” she added.
She emphasized that elements forming alloys with lithium offer significantly higher electrical capacity than traditional graphite anodes, making them the primary route for increasing anode capacity in next-generation lithium-ion batteries.
“However, their major drawback is the significant volume change during charging and discharging cycles, which leads to degradation and performance loss over time,” she explained.
According to her, this is why commercially available batteries containing silicon remain rare, although many companies are working on developing such anodes. “Our task will be to embed silicon and tin nanoparticles in a specially designed SiOC matrix to minimize these problems,” she added.
The university reported that Prof. Monika Wilamowska-Zawłocka has been awarded funding through the Swiss-Polish Cooperation Programme (Research and Innovation, Applied Research) and has received over PLN 4.3 million for research on battery materials that do not contain critical raw materials.
The project will be carried out in collaboration with the Swiss research center Empa – Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology – and the company Siloxene AG.
The research team includes Prof. Monika Wilamowska-Zawłocka, Dr. Gifty Sara Rolly, Dr. Balanand Santhosh, and students Jakub Olszewski, Emilia Bielska, and Kacper Chodziński.
In addition to research on new battery materials, Prof. Wilamowska-Zawłocka’s team (within the framework of a SONATA BIS grant from the National Science Centre) is also developing processes for recovering critical raw materials from used lithium-ion cells for reuse in new batteries.
The university stated that the researchers are working on economically viable and environmentally friendly recycling strategies to recover various battery components, including anode material (graphite), cathode materials (cobalt, nickel, manganese), current collectors (copper, aluminum), and lithium.
The researcher, quoted in the statement, emphasized that although companies around the world are already recovering raw materials from lithium-ion batteries, it is still happening on too small a scale, considering the increasing number of used batteries of this type. “This type of recycling is not as developed as for other battery types, and direct recycling – which recovers active electrode materials in their original structure – still remains at the laboratory scale,” she noted.
She added that, according to analyses and forecasts by the International Energy Agency, by 2030, between 100 and 120 GWh of used batteries from electric vehicles will be generated worldwide each year. “It is projected that the number of decommissioned battery modules from electric vehicles will increase to 4 million tons by 2030,” she stated.
Source:
Nauka w Polsce
