When I was doing my PhD, we didn’t have lithium-ion batteries. It wasn’t until 1992 that the first lithium-ion battery was commercialised, and the world started pouring energy into improving them. For the next two decades or so, it was all about lithium.
My work was always parallel to that. For the last 30 years I’ve been involved in investigating how we can improve the chemistry of all sorts of batteries, capacitors, fuel cells, solar cells. I’ve been designing new electrolyte materials – which are the heart of all types of batteries – that improve the ability of ions to move from one electrode to the other and allow the electrochemical reactions that are required to provide electricity.
In particular, I’ve been looking at safer electrolytes. There are fires every other day based around lithium-ion batteries. Obviously, these are hugely important technologies for us to transition into clean energy, but there’s always room for improvement.
It’s important to make these devices safer, to make them last longer, and to get more and more energy out of them. But as we transition to net zero, we’ve got to be careful that the technologies we develop don’t create new problems. We need to make sure that the technologies we’re creating are sustainable, and designed for recycling in a circular economy.
