Future

Batt

Meet tomorrow's
batteries, today!

The current problem

Nowadays, batteries that you find in most rechargeable devices are lithium-ion batteries.

These batteries are currently not sustainable!

The materials that we use to make them use a lot of resources to extract and process them, and they come from very far away, including places where there is war and human exploitation.

That makes the devices employing these batteries also not sustainable.

A lithium battery saying "I am not sustainable"Woman pointing

How do we want to solve it?

We are working towards a future where the energy to power up everything is sustainable and affordable, and that is why our research focuses on:

New battery chemistries

1

We work with many scientists around the world to discover new types of battery chemistries that avoid critical materials, last for longer and can store more energy.

Some promising new types of batteries include: Sodium-ion batteries, lithium-sulfur batteries, aluminium and zinc batteries.

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New materials for batteries

2

We want to make sure that the materials we use for anodes and cathodes for all future battery chemistries are as sustainable as possible.    

Currently, we focus on the production of materials  from two main feedstocks: biomass and plastic waste.  By employing waste as a resource and by prolonging  the life cycle of energy-intensive materials such as  plastic, we strive to decrease the net CO2 footprint  and costs of our synthesis processes.

Iron; a strong nailA cartoon salt shaker with the word "Sodium"
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Make Your Own Battery workshop

The materials that are used inside the batteries found in your phones, laptops and electric cars are very sensitive to air and water, so they need to be manufactured under very careful conditions to be safe. But these aren’t the only chemicals that can be used to make batteries!

In our Make Your Own Battery workshop, you will be able to build a battery using components that have been made using molecules that can be found in plants and food.

You will find out about the different parts that go into a battery, learn how to put them together, charge it up, and use your battery to light up an LED!

This experiment has been adapted from: Ivan K. Ilic et al., Adv. Mater. 2023, 35, 2211400. DOI: 10.1002/adma.20221140
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Two excited scientistsTwo excited scientistsTwo excited scientistsTwo excited scientists

A quick favour...

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Who we are

For more information about the work we do, check out these links:

Drawing of Maria
Maria Crespo

Maria wants to convert waste into useful materials to store energy. She works on sustainable sodium-ion batteries and wants to understand how to make them more efficient.

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Drawing of Heather
Heather Au

Heather is working on making batteries that can store lots of energy and support structural loads, in an economical and sustainable way.

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Marina Freitag

Marina is pioneering the integration of artificial intelligence and photovoltaics, developing advanced solar cells to power IoT devices efficiently and sustainably.

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Get in touch

If you are interested in leading your own 'Make Your Own Battery' workshop, think you can help us to further our research into the development of sustainable and affordable energy storage, or have any ideas about potential applications for our technologies, please don’t hesitate to get in touch…

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