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The new project will use advanced nanomaterials to develop more efficient sodium and potassium ion batteries.
Just last month, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), along with funding partners, awarded €21m to 37 research projects that aim to accelerate the transition to clean energy.
“The transition to clean energy is not just a technological necessity but also a foundation for the wellbeing of future generations,” Margie McCarthy, the director of research and policy insights at SEAI, said at the time.
One of the research projects funded under this ‘National Energy Research, Development and Demonstration’ scheme aims to develop the next generation of sustainable batteries.
Prof Valeria Nicolosi and Prof Jonathan Coleman, who both work at Trinity College Dublin and at the Amber Research Ireland Centre for Advanced Materials and Bioengineering, will lead the three-year €750,000 project to investigate alternatives to lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries are used in many electronic devices, including smartphones, wireless headphones, toys, electric vehicles (EVs) and electrical energy storage systems such as in data centres.
Currently, just four countries – Australia, China, Chile and Argentina – produce more than 90pc of the world’s lithium, with demand for the resource set to increase sixfold from 540,000 tonnes in 2021 to more than 3m tonnes by 2030. Cobalt is also used in the making of lithium-ion batteries and there have been several internationally documented cases of children labouring in mines for this scarce material.
“The relentless growth in demand for electrical energy has driven the widespread adoption of lithium-ion batteries as the primary portable energy storage device over the last three decades,” Coleman said.
“However, the limitations of lithium and cobalt resources, including their low abundance, uneven distribution and associated costs, have created a pressing need to explore alternative battery chemistries based on other elements beyond lithium.”
The ‘SegNetBatt’ project will investigate how to make sodium and potassium ion batteries (SIBs and KIBs) more energy efficient.
SIBs and KIBs are promising alternatives because they share similar chemistry to lithium; however, they have reduced energy density. The researchers will leverage advanced materials to achieve high capacity and high performance in these battery types.
In another similarity to lithium, potassium production is dominated by a few countries – in this case, Canada, Russia and Belarus produced about 66pc of the global supply in 2023. It is predicted that more countries will engage in sodium and potassium mining as demand increases.
Coleman is an expert in materials science and a global leader in liquid processing of graphene and other nanomaterials. Speaking to SiliconRepublic.com last year, he explained the impetus for his work on batteries.
“Given the climate crisis and the need to move away from fossil fuels, it is more important than ever to develop new batteries with improved capability,” he said.
Nicolosi is also well-placed to undertake this research, with expertise in nanomaterials for a range of applications, including energy and ICT. She is Ireland’s only six-time European Research Council awardee, with her most recent award announced earlier this year to look at transforming wood waste into sustainable electromagnetic interference shielding materials.
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