Representatives of five European research institutions (the HIU, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, the Technical University of Denmark, the Swedish Uppsala University and the Slovenian Kemijski Institute) met at HIU for the kick-off of the EU funded project „LiRichFCC” which promotes the investigation of novel concepts for cathode materials for Li-ion batteries.
Recently HIU-scientists developed a new cathode material based on a new storage principle, as a result of which energy storage densities can be increased beyond those of systems known so far. Instead of storing lithium ions by intercalation into a stable host, lithium ions are populating and vacating lattice sites of the material itself. It is the aim of the project to explore and optimize possible compositions, synthesis methods, structural properties and dynamics of Li-rich FCC materials through an interdisciplinary approach involving predictive computational work, advanced chemical synthesis and high-end characterization. An important focus of the project will further be to evaluate the use of these materials for electrical energy storage and to identify potential other uses for Li-rich FCC materials that cannot be foreseen today. This new principle allows for unprecedented energy and power density compared to other battery materials and may revolutionize the use of batteries in applications involving a need for supplying large amounts of energy and power from small spaces.
The EU promotes collaborations between international partners by funding up to five million Euro and up to four years by means of the instrument „Research & Innovation Action“ (RIA). With the slogan “New ideas for radically new future technologies” the EU was searching for cutting-edge projects within the EU framework programme “Horizon 2020”. The „LiRichFCC” project, coordinated by Maximilian Fichtner and Christian Punckt of the network NanoMat, was one among 13 RIA proposals out of overall 800 which were selected by the EU.
