Modeling of Electrolyte Materials for Energy Storage

Title:	Modeling of Electrolyte Materials for Energy Storage
SNIC Project:	SNIC 2013/1-325
Project Type:	SNAC Medium
Principal Investigator:	Patrik Johansson <patrik.johansson@chalmers.se>
Affiliation:	Chalmers tekniska högskola
Duration:	2014-01-01 – 2015-01-01
Classification:	10304 10402 10407
Keywords:

Abstract

Future energy demands require the development of efficient devices for energy storage such as high performance batteries The lithium battery (LB) technology clearly outperforms other modern types of rechargeable batteries (alkaline, NiMH etc.) having much higher volumetric and gravimetric capacities. However, these should be complemented by also sodium-ion batteries and possibly also Ca, Mg, and/or Al-batteries The Condensed Matter Physics (CMP) group at Chalmers has studied energy storage materials at the molecular level since the early 90's, especially the electrolytes needed. This research is made in international collaborations as well as in national, and in close collaboration with industry. We are involved in 4 EU programmes on lithium batteries. Nationally we are funded by both the SwedishReseacrh Council and the Swedish Hybrid Vehicle Centre to perform battery research and a large strategic grant (16MSEK) from FORMAS. Recently several grants from the Swedish Energy Agency were received - some for modeling tasks. Our aim is here to computationally model phenomena on a molecular level to understand the underlying physics and chemistry and be able to give efficient feedback to our collaborators and also to be able to assist in the interpretation of various experimental data. In addition the projects are tightly linked with the experimental activities within Chalmers and our international collaborators.