Analyzing X-ray movies with computer vision reveals how nanoparticles in a lithium-ion battery electrode work.

Leora Dresselhaus-Marais, Claudio Emma,  Bernhard Mistlberger and Johanna Nelson Weker will pursue cutting-edge research into decarbonizing steel production, theoretical physics, generating more intense particle beams, and improving X-ray microscopes.

New SLAC-Stanford Battery Center bridges the gaps between discovering, manufacturing and deploying innovative energy storage solutions. 

Two of the most urgent challenges of our time – clean energy and sustainability – require investigation at the atomic level.

Islands of inactive lithium creep like worms to reconnect with their electrodes, restoring a battery’s capacity and lifespan.

The lab will help fund the work of researchers who use artificial intelligence and machine learning to make energy systems more sustainable, affordable, resilient and fair to all socioeconomic groups.

Scientists have documented a process that makes these next-gen batteries lose charge – and eventually some of their capacity for storing energy – even when a device is turned off.

Adding polymers and fireproofing to a battery’s current collectors makes it lighter, safer and about 20% more efficient.

The lab is responding to the coronavirus crisis by imaging disease-related biomolecules, developing standards for reliable coronavirus testing and enabling other essential research.

By observing changes in materials as they’re being synthesized, scientists hope to learn how they form and come up with recipes for making the materials they need for next-gen energy technologies.

They created a comprehensive picture of how the same chemical processes that give these cathodes their high capacity are also linked to changes in atomic structure that sap performance.