UC San Diego Researchers at the Forefront of the EV Battery Revolution

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This article originally appeared in the fall 2024 issue of UC San Diego Magazine as “Charging Ahead,” a companion article to "The Battery (EV)olution."

The transition to electric vehicles is coming, and researchers at UC San Diego are focused on how to best help the region, the state and the world make that transition in a sustainable, affordable way. 

Batteries

“We continue to push the frontiers in developing batteries that can be charged in a few minutes, are safer and more energy dense, last longer at potentially a million miles and are made of materials that are abundant and nonhazardous,” says Ping Liu, a professor and the William Coles Endowed Chair in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering. 

To that end, Liu, who is also director of the school’s Sustainable Power and Energy Center, and his team are developing solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries with self-healing capabilities.

These batteries are less flammable than lithium-ion batteries, contain no transition metals and are largely free of supply chain concerns because of their use of abundant raw materials. As an added bonus, they are lightweight and projected to have low manufacturing costs.

But the most exciting aspect is their potential self-healing characteristics. “We have invented a new material, a sulfur-iodine compound,” says Liu. “If there is structural damage in the battery during repeated charge and discharge, we can periodically warm it up to melt the material and heal the damage. This type of materials innovation is essential in solving the performance issues of batteries.”

Startups

Development in battery design and recycling research has already moved out of the lab and into the business world. In recent years, faculty at UC San Diego have launched a number of startups in battery design and recycling, including South8 (working to decrease the fire risk of lithium-ion batteries and their depleted energy at low temperatures), Tyfast (working to develop lithium-ion batteries with faster charging, longer life and low-temperature capability), Unigrid Batteries (working to develop sodium batteries) and ExPost Technology (working to create a sustainable and profitable lithium-ion battery recycling process).

Workforce 

Establishing EV battery manufacturing in the U.S. will require trained and well-equipped workers. Isaac Martin, a professor and the chair of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in the School of Social Sciences, along with collaborators, is assessing workforce development in lithium extraction and lithium-ion battery manufacturing industries in Imperial County. 

The goal is to develop a plan that would enable workers to be trained for what Martin refers to as “good, family-supporting jobs” in lithium extraction and battery manufacturing while simultaneously helping employers stay competitive as they provide high-wage, union employment.

Infrastructure

Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering and affiliate member at the Center for Energy Research, is looking at how EV batteries interact with, and potentially support, the existing energy grid. As renewable energy sources make up an increasing percentage of grid supplies, she and her team are exploring ways to stabilize the electric grid and its storage capacity.