Novel Trivalent Cation Conductors for Future Batteries

Development of new types of energy storage systems to accommodate the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources is of upmost importance for societal progress towards the sustainable development goals. The lithium ion battery (LIB) is very successful but further improvements are incremental and most battery researchers agree that a completely new technology needs to be developed. We intend to explore metals that carry three electrons, rather than just one as lithium. Initially, we investigate yttrium (Y), but hope our new knowledge can be expanded to even more energy dense systems such as aluminium. High ionic conductivity in solid state electrolytes at room temperature (RT) for monovalent cations (M+) such as lithium is well known, but completely unknown for trivalent cations (M3+). This project will develop a new approach to achieve high mobility of high charge-density cations in the solid state. Novel high-performance electrolytes may be the fundament for novel all-solid-state batteries (SSB), far beyond the well-known LIB. SSB hold a large potential for achieving much higher energy densities, and become safer, cheaper and with better performance as compared to state-of-the-art LIB. Novel types of batteries may have extreme societal impact and result in a breakthrough in the transition towards a fossil-free future. Incremental improvement of known materials never changes the world, but just one new material may, since novel materials often form the basis for technological paradigm shifts.