Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionised energy storage and the modern world. Demand is expected to exceed 400 GWh per annum by 2025. This mature technology is now a limiting factor in the performance of electric vehicles and portable electronics. Developing a new generation of energy storage devices able to provide improved energy, power, cost and sustainability metrics is a critical challenge for the UK. Notably, the UK’s industrial strategy aims to make battery manufacturing and electrification of the automotive sector a major strand of the future UK industrial portfolio. Our research focuses on understanding the chemistry that underpins advanced batteries and how this understanding can be used to unlock a new generation of energy storage technologies for electrification of the automotive sector. The target is to enable alternative, sustainable technologies that can supersede the lithium-ion battery. Our approach to address these challenges combines materials chemistry and electrochemistry and is delivered in collaboration with leading stakeholders in the energy storage sector, including the Faraday Institution and the SUPERGEN energy storage hub.
Battery research at Nottingham: The Propulsion Futures Beacon of Excellence, part of a £200M investment in research at Nottingham, will champion electrification of transport and the battery research projects described here will benefit from new world-class energy storage research facility, including prototype development labs, facilities for characterization of air-sensitive battery materials and a range of in situ characterisation methods.