Early Career Researcher Collaboration Awards Deliver Impact

In 2023, a new initiative, the Faraday Institution Early Career Researcher (ECR) Collaboration Awards was set up with the objective to:

• provide financial awards of £5,000 each to allow PhD researchers and Faraday Institution Research Fellows to engage in independent cross-project research as lead applicants.
• enable the acquisition of independent research funding thus promoting career development opportunities for early career researchers.

The first round of five projects have been completed, delivering tangible impact. Read on to find out how.

Optimisation of beamline infrastructure for battery research

Gregory Rees

Gregory Rees, Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and member of the Faraday Institution SOLBAT project, secured funding for a collaboration with Magdalena Kowalska’s group at the VITO beamline at CERN in Geneva.

The objective was to assess the feasibility of using the VITO beamline to use the radioactive 8Li β-NMR technique to quantify diffusion processes at material interfaces in batteries.
Despite encountering challenges in operating solid-state batteries within the existing experimental framework, this collaboration led to:

• A CERN Knowledge Transfer Fund (KTF) Award of €150,000 to facilitate the continuation of the research.
• Commitment to substantial enhancements to the beamline infrastructure to facilitate the use of the technique, including the addition of an inert sample transfer system, the introduction of a specialised sample holder and advanced temperature control tools.
• The strengthening of the connectivity between CERN and the Faraday Institution’s SOLBAT project
• The awardee formulating a long-term, independent research project that occupies a unique position in the UK research sector.
• The development of a novel technique that, for the first time, can give researchers both structural and dynamic information about battery interfaces.

The FI ECR award has provided me with the incredible opportunity to collaborate with world-renowned experts at CERN. This partnership has enabled us to apply a novel methodology to address critical challenges in the development of all-solid-state batteries.”

Gregory Rees

Enhancing electrode manufacturing through understanding slurry properties and electrode defects

Halima Khanom

PhD researcher Halima Khanom of the University of Birmingham and the Nextrode project collaborated with Carl Reynolds (Birmingham) and Gaurav Singh (UCL) to establish a proof of concept for a combined experimental and modelling approach to advance electrode manufacturing by reducing crack formation in electrodes, which can negatively impact electrode durability and the efficiency of the electrode manufacturing process.

The collaboration:

• Developed a new technique, enhancing the understanding and control of crack formation during electrode drying
• Developed a checklist that could be used to assess electrode slurries under development, enhancing predictive capabilities and informing future material selection processes
• Introduced a moisture balance method for quick analysis to streamline the testing processes, allowing for rapid assessments and adjustments during electrode fabrication
• Prepared a paper for publication
• Formed a collaboration between Birmingham and UCL extending beyond Nextrode
• Fostered relationships with industry partners that wish to refine electrode drying processes
• Identified how modelling efforts could be expanded to predict crack formation locations

Through the award we were able to buy specialised lab equipment to carry out the last part of my experiments. Then using the data gained to work in collaboration with researchers to be able model the data obtained. This award has allowed us to work together seamlessly and achieve our goals of modelling something novel. Without this award this work would have not been possible.”

Halima Khanom

Halima and Carl with their poster at Faraday Institution Conference 2024.

Standardisation of life cycle analysis data for battery recycling processes

Evangelos Kallitsis, Postdoctoral Researcher at Imperial College London and Sean Scott, Research Associate at the University of Leicester, both members of the Faraday Institution ReLiB project, secured funding for a collaboration with the ReCell Centre in the US to include visits to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL).

Evangelos Kallitsis (left) and Sean Scott (right).

Key to the collaboration was the collection of process-specific data on recycling methods developed by ReCell, allowing comparisons to methodologies developed within the ReLiB project, to set baselines for their environmental impact and economic viability.

This collaboration led to:

• Development of resources to facilitate more efficient and standardised global life cycle analysis and techno-economic analysis to include the creation of a joint framework
• Assessment of scalability, costs and the environmental impacts of battery recycling processes
• Identification of experimental research and modelling crossover between UK and US institutions
• Knowledge transfer on life cycle inventories for further research studies
• Identification of future collaborative opportunities for ECRs between the organisations involved
• Writing of a review paper on the future outlook of battery recycling in the UK and US
• Enhanced skills in grant writing and project development for the awardees, which will be beneficial for career progression

The ECR Collaboration Award was instrumental in advancing both my research and professional development. It facilitated approximately 30 hours of in-depth discussions with overseas partners, particularly at US national labs, allowing us to identify common areas of interest and potential collaborative projects. This award not only exposed me to cutting-edge research facilities and methodologies but also significantly broadened my professional network. It offered me valuable insights into diverse research cultures, enhancing my understanding and approach to global engineering challenges in battery recycling.” Evangelos Kallitsis

From left to right: Sean, Matt Kesyer (hosted the visit) and Evangelos at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in USA.

Formation analysis and control through the linking of characterisation techniques

Four PhD researchers, Arthur Fordham and Brandon Frost of UCL, and Roksana Jackowska and Marcus Tuchel of the University of Birmingham, investigated the effects of electrolyte additives on formation cycles and the development and growth of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layers using a new approach. The collaboration spanned the LiSTAR, SafeBatt and Multi-scale Modelling projects.

From left to right: Brandon, Roksana, and Marcus in UCL’s X-ray CT suite.

The collaboration:

• Deployed a correlative approach using a total of six acoustic, electrochemical, microscopy techniques, and gas analysis techniques
• Demonstrated that linking the findings from multiple techniques provides a more comprehensive understanding of the processes occurring during formation and subsequent cycling than deploying a single technique
• Showed that more accessible characterisation techniques can provide as valuable information as more expensive analytical methods
• Revealed that ethylene carbonate (a solvent that is often used as a component of the electrolytes of Li-ion batteries) dominated the electrolyte’s behaviour, often to its detriment
• Suggested that ethylene carbonate degradation products are a critical factor in performance loss and that further long-term studies to optimise electrolyte compositions for high-performance batteries are warranted

The Early Career Researcher Collaboration award has been a brilliant experience – highly rewarding and enjoyable.”

Brandon Frost

The award has been beneficial in numerous ways. The funds allowed us to access various pieces of equipment from different universities. Most importantly, the project provided us with opportunities to develop a high-quality research initiative, enabling enjoyable weekly group meetings where we learned from the expertise of each member of the collaboration.”

Arthur Fordham

From left to right: Arthur and Dr Wesley Dose outside the Australian National Synchrotron.

Applying ultrafast optical tools to battery materials

Andrey Poletayev

Andrey Poletayev, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford and member of the Faraday Institution CATMAT project, secured funding to conduct experimental work to characterise oxygen species in battery materials in collaboration with Matthias Hoffmann at the terahertz optics facility at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the US.

This award led to:

• Experimental work with two UK (Weatherup and Johnston groups, Oxford) and three international research groups – Hoffman group (SLAC), Sakamoto group (University of California, Santa Barbara), and the Kataoka group (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan)
• Conducted preliminary experiments towards non-destructive optical detection of molecular oxygen in cathode materials via the terahertz Kerr effect
• A paper in preparation
• New research opportunities identified at the intersection of ultrafast optics facilities and high throughput neutron and synchrotron X-ray diffraction for battery applications
• The chance to curate and chair a session at the Gordon Research Conference on batteries in California with 75+ attendees
• Attendance at Operando Battery Days (Grenoble, France), Warwick Battery Days (Coventry) and the International Conference on Solid State Ionics (London)
• Opportunity for the awardee to demonstrate research independence in a new research domain, which may contribute to securing an independent fellowship to start his own research group

This ECR funding has enabled bringing to fruition a long-held experimental idea in collaboration with a US-based national lab and to attend a premier conference. There just was not money for me to do either of those things otherwise.”

Andrey Poletayev

Andrey at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the US.

The optics lab in which the experiment was done.

Posted on October 4, 2024