Professor Gisele Azimi (ChemE, MSE) and her Laboratory for Strategic Materials are exploring aluminum as an alternative to lithium and cobalt to develop more cost-effective, safe and reliable components for next-generation batteries.
Renewable energy from intermittent sources — such as solar or wind power — requires reliable energy storage systems to hold excess energy and release it when and where it’s needed. Today, lithium-ion batteries have emerged as the most common form of energy storage and are used in devices from portable electronics to electric vehicles.
The lab group’s work on high-performance and cost-effective aluminum batteries for electric transportation and renewable energy storage has been awarded a 2022 Connaught Innovation Award.