Argonne aims to break new ground on batteries

A $38 million grant to Argonne National Laboratory from the federal government for energy research has scientists hopeful of breakthroughs in areas such as batteries for electric cars.

The funding will be spread over five years and split between Argonne's Institute for Atom-efficient Chemical Transformations and its Center for Electrical Energy Storage.

More than 250 institutions applied for grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, which were announced this week.

Argonne staff members were jubilant at the news. "I walked out into the hallway, put my arms in the air and said, 'touchdown!'" chemist Christopher Marshall said Wednesday.

The extra dollars mean Argonne can hire additional staff to speed up the pace of research, officials at the lab in southeast DuPage County said.

Marshall, who heads up the Institute for Atom-efficient Chemical Transformations, said its focus will be researching catalytic conversions to improve the efficiency of coal and biomass, such as switch grass.

Catalysis involves using a substance to invoke a chemical reaction in other materials, just as catalytic converters in cars transform unwanted chemicals. Scientists hope to design new compounds that will convert problematic elements in coal or biomass so they can be used as fuel in vehicles.

"The problem with coal is that it has a lot of atoms like sulfur or oxygen that you don't want in fuel," Marshall said.

The Center for Electrical Energy Storage will focus its efforts on developing a lithium ion battery that's safe and efficient.

"Lithium-ion batteries have been around for close on 20 years, they're used largely in consumer products such as cell phones and laptop computers but they tend to be unsafe," center director and materials scientist Michael Thackeray said. Lithium is "a very light element that provides high energy per unit of mass. However, the lithium-based materials used in lithium-ion batteries are very reactive and that gives rise to safety problems," Thackeray said.

"Our goal is to increase the safety of lithium-ion batteries, to reduce their size and to increase their energy to extend the driving range of electrically-powered vehicles."

The $38 million boost also makes U.S. scientists more competitive with countries in the forefront of lithium battery research such as Japan.

Argonne is managed by the University of Chicago and is partnering with other universities on these projects.