75 years of science and technology
As use of electric vehicles grows, ORNL is working to make them better.
A battery research team led by chemist Nancy Dudney, an internationally recognized leader in energy storage, focuses on technologies that make EV batteries crash-tolerant while keeping them relatively lightweight and cost-effective.
Two of the team’s projects have developed novel ways to ensure batteries survive a vehicle collision, requiring less protective casing than that of traditional batteries and reducing the manufacturing cost while increasing EV affordability.
In the first project, ORNL chemist Gabriel Veith and colleagues created the Safe Impact Resistant Electrolyte, which changes from liquid to solid during collisions, eliminating the need for an expensive polymer separator to prevent electrical shorts. During a collision, the separator keeps the battery’s positive and negative ends from touching each other and causing fires or other safety problems.
A second approach, Dudney’s Safety Foil current collectors, ensures that large, damaged electrodes break into smaller fragments—electrically isolating them and avoiding an uncontrolled increase in temperature—thus allowing undamaged areas within the battery to continue to function.
Both inventions aid in the construction of safer batteries
in any part of the EV, including spaces most likely to suffer damage during impact.
Through a deep understanding of the fundamentals of materials, the ORNL battery team has conducted translational research, turning basic science into applied science for practical applications.
