Pitt’s game-changing battery tech: Doubling EV range, halving costs
A powerful collaboration between researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Malvern Panalytical has sparked the possibility of an electric vehicle battery with four times the range at only half the cost of current market offerings.
Imagine being able to see what goes on inside a battery while it is in use – it sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it? In this blog, we’ll tell you more about the unique collaboration where Malvern Panalytical instruments are doing just that. The cutting-edge capabilities of the Malvern Panalytical Empyrean X-ray diffractometer are helping the University of Pittsburgh to advance its understanding of how batteries work during operation, promising cleaner, longer-lasting, and more powerful batteries in future.
Read on to find out more about how Malvern Panalytical is powering research for the clean energy revolution…
Meet Dr. Kumta
Energy systems are necessary for modern society to function. We need longer-lasting batteries to power the clean, renewable, and reliable energy systems of the future. That’s where Dr. Prashant N. Kumta’s team at the Kumta Lab at the University of Pittsburgh comes in – and where Malvern Panalytical makes its mark with cutting-edge scientific instruments.
Dr. Kumta is researching experimental energy storage that holds promise for longer lifespans and better performance. This research involves rigorous materials testing, down to the crystalline behaviour at the level. At this level of precision, it’s not only important to know what chemicals are in a material, but also how they have combined and ordered at atomic scale.
In 2017, Dr. Kumta first identified Malvern Panalytical’s multipurpose diffractometer, the Empyrean, as the most effective tool on the market to help his lab achieve the required fine-grain level of detail.
X-ray vision into batteries’ behavior
The Empyrean XRD is Malvern Panalytical’s versatile platform for non-destructive materials analysis. Whether applied to electrode samples or fully functioning assembled batteries, the Empyrean provides great insight into crystallographic structures.
But it’s the Empyrean’s ‘in-operando’ capabilities that have really given the Kumta Lab the edge in energy storage research. Empyrean can study changes in the electrodes as the cell is charged and discharged. In other words, Kumta Lab uses the Empyrean not only to see what is going on inside a battery, but do so while it is running.
When Kumta Lab pushes the boundaries of what’s possible with X-ray diffractometry, Malvern Panalytical benefits too. As one of the the first in his field to use Empyrean for in-operando measurements, Dr. Kumta has helped Malvern Panalytical to fine-tune improvements to the Empyrean for in-operando measurements.
Battery tech advancements thanks to in-operando XRD
The in-operando capabilities of Empyrean XRD have expanded the research possibilities at Kumta Lab, leading to some truly novel advances in lithium-sulfur battery technology.
When the battery is recharged and used simultaneously – for example, when braking and accelerating in an electric car – lithium deposit build-ups risk shorting the battery and igniting the electrolyte. With the obvious safety risk this poses, it remains a challenge to innovate batteries that can handle charging much more dynamically.
Kumta Lab is on the brink of a breakthrough to develop an interface that prevents uneven lithium deposits on the electrode. Then it will be possible to recharge and use the battery safely. In an electric vehicle, a lithium-sulfur battery could increase the vehicle’s range from around 250 miles currently to up to 400 miles on one charge. What’s more, it could dramatically reduce the price of an electric car – from USD 40,000 down to USD 25,000.
Clean, safe, and long-lasting energy storage could soon be a reality thanks to Kumta Lab’s dedicated research with the Malvern Panalytical Empyrean.
Want to know more? Read the full case study here, and find out more about our partnership with the University of Pittsburgh here.
And for the latest updates on our advanced materials solutions, don’t forget to follow our dedicated LinkedIn page.
Further reading
- University of Pittsburgh: delivering sustainable solutions to current challenges in energy storage and conversion
- Electrifying the difficult segments with innovative battery technology
- Block copolymer synthesis of VO2 (B) microflowers for supercapacitor applications
- New Partnership Expands Research into Rechargeable Battery Systems
- Characterizing novel polymers