Videos
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Energy Storage Emerging
Instead of trying to find battery chemistries specifically tailored to particular technological needs, JCESR researchers have traded a “top-down” process for a ”bottom-up” approach in which they focus on fundamental investigations of different chemical processes on the atomic and molecular levels. “The idea is … Read More
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Technology
JCESR’s focus has changed to building transformational materials from the bottom up, atom-by-atom and molecule-by-molecule, where each atom or molecule plays a prescribed role in producing the desired overall materials performance. We could not have done this 10 years ago when the advanced scientific tools … Read More
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Team Approach
JCESR is a collaborative team of engineers and scientists with very broad backgrounds. In the battery space we are now facing challenges that required a multidisciplinary approach that no single group can achieve. Made up of 18 partner institutions, JCESR’s diversity and the opportunity for … Read More
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Renewed Focus
JCESR has had a very successful first five years. The personal relationships we’ve formed now enable us to move forward with even more momentum. Recently, the team of more than 150 came together for its first full program meeting since renewal. As stated by the … Read More
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Better Batteries Hold Promise for a Sustainable Future
Better batteries for electric cars and cellphones and better batteries for industrial use that can store excess power generated by wind and solar farms and then supply it to the grid at times of peak demand are greatly needed. The ability to efficiently store energy … Read More
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Search for the Super Battery
We live in an age when technological innovation seems to be limitlessly soaring. But for all the satisfying speed with which our gadgets have improved, many of them share a frustrating weakness: the batteries. Aired on February 1, 2017, this NOVA program entitled … Read More
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Energy Storage Has the Potential to Change the Way We Live
This CNBC Special Report discusses how the striking and swift evolution of cell phones from cumbersome bricks to sleek, powerful devices was possible because of the lithium-ion batteries used to charge them up. Next-gen batteries could bring the kind of change we’ve seen in telephones to electric vehicles and the grid. Read More
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Energy Storage: George Crabtree
George Crabtree, JCESR Director, discusses the importance of developing the next generation of batteries and how that could help transform transportation and the electricity grid. Read More
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Are Lithium-Ion Batteries Safe?
Lithium-ion batteries are used in all kinds of devices. While there are very few safety issues relative to the millions of batteries in use, in light of some recent lithium-ion safety issues, Kris Van Cleave at CBS Evening News took a look at their safety. Read More
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Sparingly Solvating Electrolytes for High Energy Density Lithium-Sulfur Batteries
As JCESR scientists work to develop lighter and less expensive chemistries than those used in current lithium-ion batteries, lithium-sulfur shows tremendous promise. This perspective presents an alternate approach that could move us closer to long-lived, high energy density lithium-sulfur batteries. Read More
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Understanding fluorine-free electrolytes via small-angle X-ray scattering
We compare the solvation phenomenon of sodium tetraphenylborate (NaBPh4) salt dissolved in organic solvents of propylene carbonate (PC), 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME), acetonitrile (ACN) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) by SAXS/WAXS measurement and MD simulation. Read More
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Navigating the Minefield of Battery Literature
This is an invited perspective aiming to help researchers new to the field of battery research to circumvent certain recurring misconceptions and inaccuracies in the current battery literature. It covers the electrolyte ideality and practical situation in batteries, the difficulty in accurately determining ion transference … Read More
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Quantifying Lithium Ion Exchange in Solid Electrolyte Interphase (SEI) on Graphite Anode Surfaces
By using Li isotopic labelling of SEIs and electrolytes followed by time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectroscopy and solid-state NMR analyses, we found that the majority of Li+ “immobilized” in the chemical ingredients were exchanged after 1 SEI formation cycle. Ion exchange by diffusion based on concentration … Read More
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A Sobering Examination of the Feasibility of Aqueous Aluminum Batteries
We revealed the first compelling evidence for a dynamic octahedral solvation structure around Al3+ dominated by labile water and OH-, without Al-OTf contact ion pairs, at high salt concentrations. High proton activity is observed in transport and electrochemical measurements which relates well with the proposed … Read More
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Ion Migration Mechanisms in the Sodium Sulfide Solid Electrolyte Na3-xSb1-xWxS4
The atomic-scale mechanisms that underlie the exceptionally high ionic conductivity of Na3-xSb1-xWxS4 are elucidated. The conductivity is well explained by a combination of vacancy-related effects and a strong overlap of cation vibrational modes with anion librations. Read More
