Accelerating the Discovery of Electrolyte Systems for Safe and Sustainable Energy Storage

Principal Investigator: Victor Zavala, professor of chemical and biological engineering

Co-Principal Investigators:

Jessi Cisewski-Kehe, assistant professor of statistics

Rose Cersonsky, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering

Matthew Gebbie, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering

Fang Liu, assistant professor of materials science and engineering

Reid Van Lehn, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering

Achieving electrification and decarbonization of our society requires the development of safe and sustainable energy storage technologies. For instance, batteries are key for harnessing intermittent power generated by solar panels and wind turbines. A critical and fascinating component of batteries are electrolytes, which are materials that are responsible for rapidly transporting ionic current between electrodes during charging/discharging. Diverse electrolytes are currently being explored to overcome limitations of commercial batteries (e.g., lithium-ion batteries). Unfortunately, there are significant gaps in our understanding on how electrolyte design influences battery performance and this ultimately hinders our ability to meet necessary economic, safety, and sustainability targets.

This project will develop computational and experimental techniques to gain fundamental understanding that help us accelerate the discovery of safe and sustainable electrolytes. Specifically, high-throughput computer models and experiments will be used to understand how electrolytes behave at small scales and how such behavior influences battery performance.