Designing smart electrodes that improve battery performance for electric vehicles
With Ann Huang, expert in energy storage materials
“The big challenge is to increase the capacity of batteries using new materials. We are developing oxides (electrode materials) with a different chemical composition and crystal structure.”
The limited range of batteries is a barrier to purchase for many when it comes to Electric Vehicles (EVs) but senior lecturer Dr Chun Ann Huang has invented a novel material that could enable better performance, longer range and reduced charging times.
In the face of accelerating climate change, the need to be able to mass produce efficient batteries to power EVs is high on the science agenda. Ann has long been fascinated by the possibilities of new materials to solve this problem, and her current research, is focused on developing oxide materials with inherent advantages over conventional lithium or sodium ion batteries.
“The capacity of batteries has been improving since they were invented in the 1980s, but it is still quite low,” says Ann.
“The big challenge is to increase the capacity of batteries using new materials. We are developing oxides (electrode materials) with a different chemical composition and crystal structure.”
In laboratory tests, these ‘smart’ materials have in some cases demonstrated 30 per cent more capacity and 50 per cent lower degradation rates than conventional battery materials – which could enable EVs with longer range and more durable batteries.
“One of the issues is understanding what happens inside batteries at the nanoscale,” explains Ann. “At Imperial, we’re lucky to have some of the world’s most advanced Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) facilities, and these allow us to understand the underlying phenomena.
Ann is currently working as a co-investigator – in collaboration with colleagues from five other UK universities – on the NEXTRODE project, researching new methods for manufacturing smart electrodes and putting them on the path to commercialisation. Highlighting its importance in the UK drive towards greener energy storage, the project has won funding of £19m, along with two other projects, by the Faraday Institution (the UK’s flagship institute for electrochemical energy storage research).
"The future challenge is to take this from lab to industrial scale-up, but by being free to explore this kind of research we may find the radical solutions we need to solve today’s global problems."
About Ann
Having loved doing chemistry experiments as a child, Ann decided to study for an undergraduate degree in Materials – at Imperial – because she couldn’t choose a single science subject but knew that Materials combined both chemistry and physics.
“I became interested in batteries during my degree and began researching new materials for electrodes during my PhD at Oxford University,” she says, “I then came full circle a few years later, returning to Imperial as an academic.
“I enjoy teaching and I always wanted to do research: this career gives you the opportunity to pursue your own ideas.”
An example of this came in 2022 when Ann won a highly prestigious European Research Council Starting Grant which gave her the opportunity to “freely explore risky, blue sky research”.
She says: “My research is at the fundamental stage, and obviously the future challenge is to take this from lab to industrial scale-up, but by being free to explore this kind of research we may find the radical solutions we need to solve today’s global problems.”
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