A battery research collaboration focusing on lithium-ion alternatives is starting at MAX IV. The collaboration involving Swedish and Danish universities is a pilot for the new HUB user access mode.
Battery technology is an important Swedish and Nordic research area, something that has been underscored, not least by recent initiatives by the Swedish Government. The challenge of finding new, effective and sustainable lithium-ion battery alternatives is a complex and multifaceted task that requires collaboration between experts in different areas. This need motivated the new Battery pilot HUB, including Chalmers University of Technology, Uppsala University, Lund University, Aarhus University and MAX IV.
We spoke to Aleksandar Matic from Chalmers University of Technology, one of the partners in the newly formed Battery HUB collaboration named BatMAX and Joachim Schnadt, MAX IV Science Director.
“We’re going to study sodium-ion batteries, a promising battery technology for the future. Sodium-ion batteries can store about the same amount of energy as a conventional lithium-ion battery, but have several important advantages. Sodium is more abundant and evenly spread globally as a raw material since it can be extracted from seawater. Sodium-ion batteries are also more sustainable because the cathode materials do not contain cobalt, which is often used in lithium-ion battery cathodes,” says Matic.
He is very excited about the opportunity to collaborate with other research groups.
“We build on each other’s strengths in research. It is the cathode materials, the polymer electrolyte and the characterisation of interfaces. Polymer electrolytes are attractive as they both increase the battery safety and can support a higher energy density,” says Matic. “The HUB collaboration, formed between applied research and research infrastructures, is new in Sweden, and we think that it can really accelerate development. In the collaboration, we share each other’s best ideas and get important feedback. For example, when something goes wrong with an experiment, you never hear about it, and maybe another group unknowingly repeats the same mistake. Now we learn from each other. The HUB also fits our fast-moving area better in that, before, when we come to an experiment time at MAX IV that we applied for months ago, the research field has already moved forward, so that the starting point is now different from when we applied.”
Aleksandar Matic is very pleased with MAX IV as a partner in the collaboration and hopes that the HUB access mode will also prove useful for other research projects and challenges.
“We’re really happy to have MAX IV in the collaboration with all the incredible equipment made available to us, as the HUB experiments will span over several beamlines, and the very knowledgeable staff. We hope that BatMAX will also serve as a good example of what MAX IV can do and introduce it as an attractive research infrastructure to similar groups. We hope that we can contribute to developing the HUB form of collaboration,” says Matic.
MAX IV Science Director Joachim Schnadt sees a clear advantage for MAX IV with the new battery HUB.
“MAX IV has a longstanding goal of facilitating collaboration and knowledge exchange between different user groups, but also with our staff and in this way promote competence building in the research groups and at MAX IV. The battery HUB is a great way to accelerate science in this societally important area while at the same time advancing the development of methods, skills, and the Swedish networks within the area. I’m looking forward a lot to seeing what will come out of the battery HUB,” says Schnadt.
