Hyzon Motors awarded $50,160 in November to Junjie Niu, associate professor, materials science & engineering, for a first-phase, six-month collaborative research project on solid state batteries. A long-term collaboration on high-energy-density batteries is being established between UWM and Hyzon.
The goal of the project, Niu says, is to design a high-performance, solid-state lithium battery system that meets the requirements of batteries demanded by the fast-growing fields of electric vehicles, grid-level storage, mobile devices, cordless power tools and autonomous machines including drones and advanced robotics: namely that they are safe, cost-effective, high energy density and have long-lasting properties.
Niu says that all solid-state lithium batteries (ASSLBs) with metallic lithium anodes and high voltage cathodes could meet all these requirements.
“They also could solve the problems faced by traditional lithium-ion batteries with liquid electrolytes,” he says, “including flammability, unstable solid-electrolyte interphase formation, poor cycling performance and low energy density.”
Hyzon Motors, a leader in fuel cell electric mobility in the commercial vehicle market, aims to supply zero-emission heavy duty trucks and buses to its customers to mitigate the emissions from diesel transportation.