A Berkeley Lab-led research team has discovered a surprising set of chemical reactions involving magnesium that degrade battery performance even before the battery can be charged up. The findings could steer the design of next-gen batteries.
Berkeley Lab researchers have recorded the first observations of the molecular structure of liquid water at a gold electrode under different battery charging conditions.
Inaugurated today with help from U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Berkeley Lab’s new General Purpose Laboratory will be devoted to flagship centers in materials sciences and energy storage research, as well as to key biosciences programs. Among the building’s new tenants will be the Berkeley Lab site of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, or JCESR, a multi-lab program aimed at achieving revolutionary advances in battery performance.
Berkeley Lab researchers, working under the JCESR Energy Hub, used supercomputer simulations to dispel a popular misconception about magnesium-ion batteries that should help advance the development of multivalent ion battery technology.