Powering the cars of the future

One of the major challenges in the 21st Century is the development of cleaner, sustainable means of energy conversion and storage in order to address the problems posed by global warming.

Powering transportation is a core energy issue that will impact on most people’s daily lives in the near future. Rechargeable lithium batteries represent a leap forward in energy storage and have already seen tremendous worldwide success in portable electronics such as mobile phones and laptops.

However, the future development of improved lithium batteries for use in hybrid and pure electric vehicles will rely on the need to discover and develop novel materials.

New materials

Professor Saiful Islam of the Department of Chemistry is leading a team of researchers exploring a range of new materials including iron-phosphates and iron-silicates for lithium batteries. The latter offers the prospect of cheap, safe electrodes essentially made from rust and sand.

To explore these materials, we are using powerful computer modelling techniques to gain new insight into their properties at the atomic scale. By understanding these materials, the research team hopes to develop better and cleaner lithium batteries which could be used for hybrid or pure electric cars, and to help cut carbon emissions.

Energy research at Bath

Energy research at University of Bath pulls together expertise from the sciences, engineering and psychology departments, focusing on key issues including:

• development of novel energy generation
• storage techniques
• security of supply and network demands
• the experiences of the end user.