A team of chemical engineering researchers are leading the charge in new battery technology
Monday, January 10, 2022
Media Contact: Kristi Wheeler | Manager, CEAT Marketing and Communications | 405-744-5831 | kristi.wheeler@okstate.edu
You can find them in your television remote, your child’s favorite toy or your watch.
However, a team of researchers from the School of Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University are investigating new battery technologies that could prove to be the future of energy consumption and storage.
Researchers around the world are trying to find a replacement for lithium-ion batteries, currently the most commonly used battery in most industries, due to limited resources of lithium and the subsequent cost of manufacturing those batteries.
Dr. Ömer Çapraz — an assistant professor from the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at OSU — is researching and developing new battery technologies that could significantly impact the future of energy. His research focuses on developing battery technologies for demanding applications such as electrical vehicles and grid-scale energy storage.
“Lithium-ion batteries have an abundance of positive qualities, such as high energy density and good cycle life,” Çapraz said. “However, looking at those units from a renewable energy and grid-scale energy storage perspective leaves much to be desired.”
Leading researchers believe sodium and potassium could be viable replacements for lithium-ion technology. Both elements are much more abundant and would therefore significantly cut the cost of manufacturing, as well as provide equal, if not improved, energy output and reliability.
Over the next three years, Çapraz and his team — with the support of the Department of Energy — will be evaluating the intercalation of sodium and potassium ions into cathode electrodes and monitor the effects on the kinetics, performance, chemistry and mechanical stages of the electrodes under different load and cycle environments.
The inherent problems of these new materials are the size and reactivity of sodium and potassium ions. Using state-of-the-art observation equipment, Çapraz’s team will be able to evaluate the new materials from both a mechanical and chemical perspective for the first time. In doing so, Çapraz hopes that they will be able to identify specific obstacles to the further development of these battery technologies and create new methods to overcome those limitations.
Çapraz’s focus has always been on new battery technologies and he has partnered with entities such as the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the development of sodium- and potassium-ion batteries. He has also received funding from NASA to research the development of solid-state batteries.
Çapraz also received an award from the Binational Science Foundation in partnership with Bar-Ilan University in Israel to aid in the development of lithium-oxygen batteries, which possess 10 times more energy than a standard lithium-ion battery. Recently, Çapraz was funded by the United States Air Force — in collaboration with Skydweller Aero and the University of Oklahoma — to develop structural batteries for electrification of flights.
Çapraz is also interested in developing infrastructures for clean energy transformation. His team, along with the University of Southern California, recently discovered a new way to utilize industrial toxic waste as an alternative battery material to store lithium-ions.
Hundreds of thousands of tons of particulate matter are released by diesel combustion which causes serious public health problems responsible for millions of deaths worldwide, per year. The study provided a pathway to create a sustainable energy–environment nexus by converting an abundant toxic pollutant into a valuable electrode material for lithium-ion batteries.
“I am excited to explore direct commercial pathways toward the utilization of industrial waste in order to fill the crucial need currently facing our rapidly changing energy infrastructure,” Çapraz said.
The results of Çapraz’s research could have an impact on numerous industries, such as the manufacturing of electric vehicles, electrification of aviation or developing the state of Oklahoma’s use of wind energy.
“I’m excited that our research could significantly impact the development of these new battery technologies and in-turn change the future of energy,” Çapraz said.
Photo by: Gary Lawson
Story by: Jeff Hopper | IMPACT Magazine