A team of scientists from the University of California has launched a project to unlock the inner workings of lead batteries with the help of nanoscale technology.

Working with the Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI), the new industry-academia partnership based in Los Angeles will explore the fundamental processes occurring inside lead batteries as part of the consortium’s plans to deliver performance improvements in the technology for the automotive and utility grid storage sectors.

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will use Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) to let researchers to observe the crystallisation and dissolution of the phases involved in the charge and discharge of a lead battery during operation at the nanoscale.

The project, spanning 18 months, should provide deeper understanding into sustaining these materials to deliver improved battery performance and longer lifetimes.

Chris Regan, who leads the research team from UCLA, said: “Lead batteries have been a mainstay technology for more than a hundred years, but there is a significant amount that is still to be understood about the fundamental reactions occurring in this chemistry - we believe this new technique will help unlock new technological data to improve the performance potential.”

Alistair Davidson, director of CBI, said: “This kind of fundamental research is key to designing the next generation of advanced lead batteries, as demand grows for ever more sophisticated and high-performance rechargeable batteries, we are ensuring that the science supports new innovation.”

Rapid technological advances and falling costs for installed grid battery storage underpin predictions that energy storage in the US alone will reach 100 GW of new energy storage by 2030.

As the world’s only pre-competitive lead battery research hub, research undertaken by the consortium allows its global membership of battery manufacturers, recyclers, material suppliers and testing institutes to benefit from new insights gained through its technical projects.

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