Accomplishments
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Scientific Sprints: Speed Through Collaboration
As an innovative twist on traditional project management, JCESR conducts “Sprints,” small teams of dedicated researchers formed to solve a select research challenge within 1-6 months. Using the Sprint approach, JCESR takes a single question from our catalog of prioritized scientific challenges and dedicates a small, multidisciplinary team of 5-15 members to answer it. Read More
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The Electrochemical Discovery Laboratory
The Electrochemical Discovery Laboratory (EDL) — a key JCESR discovery tool located at Argonne — synthesizes high-quality materials for testing in beyond-lithium-ion batteries and characterizes their properties with state-of-the-art analytical techniques. Read More
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The Electrolyte Genome Project
Traditional chemistry relies on intuition and experience to select a few materials that might work well for new electrolytes. The Electrolyte Genome streamlines this process by evaluating thousands of materials by simulation on the computer and choosing the most promising few for synthesis in the laboratory. Read More
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Water as a Catalyst – Improving how Batteries Function
Anyone who has ever dropped a cell phone in the sink will tell you that electrical devices and water do not go together. However, a new study has shown that conventional wisdom may not hold on the molecular scale in some beyond-lithium-ion batteries. Read More
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Techno-Economic Modeling -- Building New Battery Systems on the Computer
JCESR is applying techno-economic models to project the performance and cost of a wide array of promising new battery systems before they are prototyped. The results from techno-economic modeling establish performance “floors” for discovery science teams looking for new anodes, cathodes, and electrolytes for a beyond lithium-ion battery, identifying those with the potential to meet JCESR’s goal and rejecting those unlikely to be effective. Read More
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Fitting the Lithium-Sulfur Battery with a New Membrane
The lithium-sulfur battery has higher energy storage capacity and lower cost than lithium ion. But there is a serious stumbling block. Polysulfides form in the cathode during battery cycling and pass through the membrane to contaminate the lithium metal anode. This results in a rapid decline in performance. JCESR researchers appear to have found a solution to the problem – the “polymer of intrinsic microporosity” (PIM). Read More
Latest Updates
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Data-driven electrode parameter identification for vanadium redox flow batteries through experimental and numerical methods
This study provides extensive validation for 3D-to-2D model reduction for redox flow batteries (RFBs). This computationally light, 2D model is used to generate a data set of >6,000 unique RFB simulations for statistical quantification. Read More
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Ion-conducting Thermo-responsive Films Based on Polymer Grafted Cellulose Nanocrystals
Mechanically robust, thermoresponsive, ion-conducting nanocomposite films have been prepared from ionic liquid imbibed poly(2-phenylethyl methacrylate)-grafted cellulose nanocrystals. On account of the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the grafted polymer in the ionic liquid, these materials exhibit a conductivity decrease around 60 °C … Read More
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Competition of Stacking and Piling Improves Molecular Solubility in Electrolyte
Organic redox-active molecules (redoxmers) are charge carriers in redox flow cells. Since the energy density of a battery fluid is proportional to concentration of active molecules, high molecular solubility is desirable. However, as the redoxmer solutions become crowded, solute-solute interactions become stronger, opposing high solubility. Read More
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Greater redoxmer stability through nanoconfinement
Structural diversity of organic redox-active molecules (redoxmers) permits tuning not only solute-electrolyte interactions but also solute-solute interactions in concentrated electrolyte solutions. The 1,4-dimethoxybenzene (DMB) family is an example of such flexibility. We show that DMB molecule 1 forms extended aggregates in concentrated solutions whereas simpler … Read More
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Highly Reversible Plating/Stripping of Porous Zinc Anodes for Multivalent Zinc Batteries
Highly reversible Zn plating/stripping achieved with electrodes prepared by electrodepositing Zn onto porous 3D Cu foam. Read More