OXYPOW · Harnessing the electrochemical power of oxygen
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2023-09-01 → 2025-08-31
- EU contribution
- €181,153
- Participants
- 3
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Harnessing the electrochemical power of oxygen
The OXYPOW project addresses one of today’s most pressing challenges: how to store renewable energy efficiently and sustainably. As society moves toward green electricity from solar and wind sources, reliable energy storage becomes essential to balance supply and demand. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) currently power most portable devices and electric vehicles, but their performance and sustainability are limited by the use of critical and ethically problematic elements such as cobalt. To meet the growing global demand for batteries while reducing environmental and humanitarian impact, new materials that are both high-performing and sustainable are urgently needed. Recent discoveries have shown that lithium-rich cathode materials can use not only metal but also oxygen atoms to store and release energy, potentially doubling the capacity of conventional cathodes. However, these promising materials still face major challenges, including rapid performance loss and poor stability during use. The OXYPOW project seeks to overcome these limitations by uncovering the fundamental link between how these materials are made (their synthesis), their atomic structure, and how they behave during operation in a battery. Using advanced in situ characterization tools, the project aims to observe the atomic-level changes that occur during synthesis and battery cycling in real time. This will help design new, cobalt-free materials that can store more energy for longer periods, improving the efficiency and lifetime of future batteries. By developing the scientific basis for next-generation, high-capacity, and ethically responsible lithium-ion batteries, OXYPOW supports the European Green Deal’s goals of clean energy, reduced raw material dependence, and sustainable industrial growth. Its results could ultimately help extend the range of electric vehicles, lower the cost of renewable energy storage, and reduce Europe’s reliance on critical raw materials, thereby delivering tangible economic, environmental, and societal benefits.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The recent discovery of anionic redox chemistry has unveiled a new transformational paradigm for designing sustainable rechargeable batteries with superior energy density. Li-rich layered oxide (LLO) cathodes exhibiting oxygen redox activity can deliver exceptional capacities (> 40% higher than state-of-the-art NMC811), due to the cumulative cationic and anionic redox processes. However, the LLOs suffer from poor energy efficiency, reduced power density and voltage decay, caused by progressive irreversible migration and trapping of transition metals in intermediate sites in the structure during operation. In this context, the aim of the project is to target new LLO polymorphs with improved stability and performance through crystal engineering of the oxygen stacking sequence and tuning of local cation-cation interactions. First, I will leverage my expertise in in situ X-ray/neutron diffraction and total scattering methods to study the evolution of the atomic structure (average and local) during synthesis of selected LLO compositions. This will (1) dramatically reduce the time needed to cover parameter space, (2) facilitate identification of the optimal reaction conditions for specific LLO polymorphs, and (3) provide fundamental mechanistic insight. Secondly, this information will be used to target LLOs with different structural configurations and systematically examine the relationship between their electrochemical performance and structural evolution during operation. Thirdly, I will investigate the charge compensation mechanisms (cationic and anionic) of the materials, which will be related to the structural changes as well as electrochemical data to yield a complete mechanistic picture of the synthesis-structure-property relationship in the system. This fundamental groundwork will allow development of a fabrication strategy for the next generation of sustainable high-performance cathode materials exploiting the untapped electrochemical potential of oxygen.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101063369
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e508f821ae&appId=PPGMS
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e50fed53ea&appId=PPGMS
Data: CORDIS, © European Union