Faster charging and longer battery life are important for future vehicles. Now UiA is helping to ensure that new battery materials can be developed faster.
"When you put a new material into a battery and test it, you might only see small changes because there are so many elements involved. Our approach is that we only test the new material. This gives us much clearer results."
This is what Associate Professor Johannes Landesfeind says. He leads the battery research at UiA.
The goal is to understand which properties of the materials make good batteries. This could make it easier to develop batteries that charge faster and last longer.
New collaboration
The project is a collaboration between UiA, Vianode, Cenate, SINTEF and the University of Stavanger.
"The great thing about this is that we're working with manufacturers. They have all the equipment needed to fine-tune this on a large scale," says Landesfeind.
Vianode in Kristiansand is a major player in battery materials and amongst other things has an agreement with car manufacturer General Motors.
Each partner has its own role in the project. SINTEF will focus on raw material surface properties. The University of Stavanger examines how the materials perform in an electrochemical environment. UiA conducts long-term and in-situ tests on how the materials works electrochemically and in cells..
Together, they aim to find better ways to test materials used on the battery's negative side, known as anode materials.
Funds for students
The project has received NOK 9.6 million from The Research Council of Norway through the scheme Competence-building Project for Industry. It will also be co-financed by the partners from the industry.
The money will, among other things, finance a doctoral position at UiA.
"The doctoral student will spend 25 per cent of their time at Vianode. There will be applied research on batteries, with one foot in academia and one in industry," says Landesfeind.
In addition to the doctoral position, the project will also fund student positions. This gives students the opportunity to gain relevant research experience alongside their studies.