V. Focused Fundamental Research - EERE - U.S. Department of ...

V.A Introduction
Duong – DOE, Srinivasan – LBNL
The work is administered by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), with principal researchers from LBNL,
five additional national laboratories, fourteen universities, and two commercial companies. The program is organized into the
following areas:
· New Cathode Systems, Performance and Limitations
· New Anode Materials
· Novel Electrolytes and their Characterization,
· Li-ion Modeling, Diagnostics, and Cell Analysis
The BATT program has an enviable team of principle investigators, many of them world renowned, who push the
battery field forward in each of these areas. The interaction among the four main focus areas is shown in Figure V - 2.
Figure V - 2: BATT Focus Areas
This section summarizes the research activities of this program in FY 2011. The website for the BATT Program is
found at http://batt.lbl.gov. Brief descriptions of each research area are as follows.
The New Cathode Materials task aims to find improved cathode materials that offer significant improvements in
volumetric and specific energy and/or power over current state of the art materials, like LiCoO 2 . A request for proposals
for new cathode materials was issued in late 2010 and four new projects have been selected. The new projects include
work on the high voltage, high-energy layered/layered or Li rich cathode materials, a project investigating Li bearing
mixed polyanion glasses, and project investigating polyanions that may cycle more than one Li ion per transition metal ion
such as the silicates, and one project that will develop in situ reactors designed to investigate solvothermal synthesis
reactions in real-time using synchrotron. These new projects have only recently begun and have not generated any new
results, but abstracts for each are provided below.
The New Anode Materials task involves a significant focus on silicon, which offers ten times the capacity of currently
used graphite anodes. Researchers are investigating several forms of Si, including nanowires, nanoparticles, clathrate
structures, and others. They are also investigating methods for stabilizing Si and Sn composite negative electrodes,
including the use of Cu foam current collectors, atomic layer deposition to stabilize alloy electrodes, and a number of
Si/carbon nanocomposite materials.
The Novel Electrolyte Materials task continues projects that began in 2009 following a BATT solicitation posted in
2008. These five research efforts focus on expanding the temperature range of cells, additives to stabilize the negative and
Energy Storage R &D 468 FY 2011 Annual Progress Report