The last ALLIANCE consortium meeting occured at University of Bristol, on Monday 25th November 2024. Thanks to Prof. Steve Eichhorn for hosting the meeting. 

In the morning, we had a workshop on potential grants, aiming to achieve a common research topic and idea for target bid. We are excited to see new members in our community, marking a key milestone for our project. We hope to achieve success in the upcoming grant applications and look forward to the opportunities ahead.

 In the afternoon, we had three wonderful seminars from external speakers. The insightful psentation topics are:

Professor Magda Titirici, Imperial College London, Sodium ion batteries with hard carbon anode

Professor David Fermin, University of Bristol, Complex trasition metal oxides for electrochemical energy storage

Dr Jenny Baker, Unviersity of Bath, NASICON ceramic solid electrolyte and other functional coatings

Penryn Campus, University of Exeter, Cornwall — October 30, 2024

On October 30th, 2024, the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus hosted an inspiring one-day workshop focused on the latest advancements in battery research, bringing together prominent researchers, industry experts, and community leaders. The event featured distinguished speakers, including Prof. Nigel Brandon (Imperial College London), Prof. Thomas Miller (University College London), Dr. Xuekun Lu (Queen Mary University of London), Dr. Dominic Spencer-Jolly (University of Birmingham), and Prof. Oana Ghita from the University of Exeter, with additional insights from GW4 ALLIANCE colleagues who shared progress in lithium-ion battery technology.

The workshop opened with a warm welcome from Prof. Voicu Ion Sucala and Prof. Philipp Thies, followed by a session expertly chaired by Prof. Xiaohong Li. Topics ranged from recent advances in lithium-ion battery technology to new strategies for enhancing performance, longevity, and sustainability in energy storage systems. Attendees engaged in dynamic discussions on research developments and explored collaborative opportunities to drive the future of battery innovation.

The event’s success was made possible by generous support and participation from GW4 Building Communities Generator Fund, Cornwall Council, and industry partners, including Hotcell and Cornish Lithium. Their contributions underscored the commitment to fostering partnerships that bridge academia, industry, and local government in advancing sustainable technologies.

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) will continue to play a vital role to promote the widespread use of electric vehicles and portable electronic devices and are contributing towards the UK’s 2035 net zero electricity target, of which, all-solid-state LIBs with solid electrolyte are expected to provide better safety and improved power and energy performance.

This workshop is designed to foster collaboration and drive innovation in battery technologies and related fields, with a focus on developments within the southwest region. We hope this workshop can provide a valuable opportunity to share ideas and build connections between academic and industrial stakeholders.

Acknowledgement:

This workshop of project was supported by the GW4 Building Communities Generator Fund.

The second ALLIANCE consortium meeting occured at Cardiff University, on 13 September 2024, at School of Chemistry, 1.40 Beverton Lecture theatre. Thanks to Dr Stefano Leoni and Dr Bo Hou for their hosting. 

In this meeting, we updated our project progress with GW4 Building Communities Manager. Each university presented their recent research work related to the research in batteries, cellulose materials, carbon electrode materials, polymer and membrane technologies. We discussed about the community progress tracking, potential funding bids, upcoming seminars/webinars and the plan for penryn workshop, which is coming soon.

On 24 and 26 June 2024, we hosted a UK–Hong Kong research seminar at the Stratham and Penryn campuses, University of Exeter. This activities is funded by the ESE Global Partnerships Mobility Funding Awards. Welcome the visitors:

Prof. Wenjun Zhang, Centre of Super-Diamond and Advanced Films (COSDAF) & Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, China

• Topic: Applications of Plasma Technology in Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage Materials

Dr. Ye Chen, Department of Chemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

• Topic: Metal nanomaterials with unconventional crystal phases: synthesis and catalytic properties

The first ALLIANCE consortium meeting occured at University of Bath, on Tuesday 18th June 2024. The start of award call from the GW4 team was made about the project timeline and arrangement. Each of our academic partners shared their expertise of research. After sufficient discussion, we found the common research interest and potential collaboration areas. We decided the schedule and plan for the following events. We also discussed how to collaborate with our industry partners.

A kick off meeting for the GW4 Alliance Team was held as satellite meeting of the annual Great Western Electrochemistry Meeting 2024 on Monday 17th June 2024 at the University of Bath. This meeting allows PhD students and early career researchers to present and discuss research linked to electrochemistry and to electrochemical energy storage.