Faraday Institution to fund Nextrode project for developing electrode for Li-ion electric vehicle batteries

Oxford University’s Nextrode project that is researching ways to make electrode for Li-ion electric vehicle batteries more efficient has been reportedly chosen by the Faraday Institution. Faraday Institution is a research charity backed by the UK government. Last week, the institution announced that it would fund £55 million for five battery projects, in a bid to improve the technology that sits at the heart of electric vehicles.

Today, Li-ion batteries are mostly made using a process called slurry casting, whereby the active materials are mixed in wet slurry and coated onto thin foils of aluminium or copper, then dried and compressed.

This process is highly effective for mass production but involves a great cost to the manufacturer for being developed through trial and error. Also, slurry cast electrodes limit the performance of the battery as the active electrochemical materials are uniformly distributed throughout the electrode structure.

However, research has shown that arranging the electrochemical materials in a more structured way can improve battery performance. But at the no mass-manufacturing route is available to do this. So, this is where the Nextrode project will come into the picture with its research work to find out new manufacturing methods to create structured electrodes cheaply and in high manufacturing volumes.

Professor David Greenwood from the University of Warwick, who is involved in the project, hopes that through this research they will be able to develop an electric car battery that can retain enough charge in 6 minutes to travel 150 miles.

The research will take place at the University of Warwick's £60 million state-of-the-art innovation centre, allowing the researchers to adopt a "bench to bedside" approach.

"We're able to start and end the process of battery making - from experimental chemistry all the way through to its manufacture – under one roof," explained Mark Amor-Segan, Chief engineer at WMG, University of Warwick.

Commenting on the news, business minister,Nadhim Zahawi said: "We are committed to ensuring that the UK is at the forefront of developing the battery technologies needed to achieve our aim for all cars and vans to be effectively zero emission by 2040."

UK Research and Innovation Chief Executive, Professor Sir Mark Walport added: “Bringing together experts across industry and academia, this exciting research will significantly improve the UK’s ability to develop the high-performance electric vehicles of the future.”