Novel flowable lithium-ion battery

2 Minute read

The key research question in this project is:

• To integrate a lithium-based slurry electrode with common lithium salt solutions in an SSRFB.

The details

Significant advancements in electrochemical storage materials and energy storage systems have been made in the past few decades. Among these, redox flow batteries (RFB) have paved the way for storing a large amount of renewable energy created through solar or wind sources.

Semi-solid redox flow batteries (SSRFBs) were invented in 2009 and have gained increased attention. In conventional redox flow battery, vanadium-based electrolytes acting as electrodes are circulated through the cell to achieve energy storage. In an SSRFB, solid active materials (e.g. lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) and graphite) and electron conductive additives (e.g. Ketjen Black) are suspended in organic electrolyte solutions to form slurry electrodes, making a flowable lithium-ion battery possible.

It has been shown that the energy density is significantly greater in SSRFBs than that in RFBs, but lithium-based active materials are expensive to synthesise. This project aims to integrate a lithium-based slurry electrode with common lithium salt solutions in an SSRFB. This could lead to the development of high-performance batteries that store energy in a cost-effective manner.

The graduate researcher on this project is: Sawan Karumbaiah Koopadira

Supervision team

• The University of Melbourne: Professor Sandra Kentish, Dr Kevin Li, Professor Amanda Ellis and Dr George Chen
• RWTH Aachen: Deniz Rall, Dr John Linkhorst, Professor Matthias Wessling and Korcan Perci