Funding for Limerick research into powering ‘cars of the future’ with silicon

A RESEARCH project being undertaken in Limerick received funding worth €425,000 to explore using silicon to power the cars of the future.

SAND, a research project led by Dr Hugh Geaney at the Bernal Institute at the University of Limerick, has been awarded a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) starting research grant to develop new silicon active materials for better performing lithium-ion batteries. 

“Battery technology is currently the greatest impediment to the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs),” Dr Geaney explained. 

“This project seeks to address this issue by developing materials that can deliver higher storage capacities, ultimately leading to longer range EVs.”

European policy demands that 40% of new cars are to be EVs by 2030, according to Dr Geaney.

To achieve this ambitious target, significant improvements to existing EV batteries are required.

“Current batteries use carbon that can store significantly less energy than silicon for a given weight,” he added. 

“As a result, silicon has great potential to increase the amount of energy that can be stored in batteries.” 

“We are focusing on revealing how these silicon based materials behave while in the battery at the scale of nanometres, 1 billionth of a meter.” 

“Developing a better understanding of the changes that occur in the material during battery operation will lead to longer life batteries with improved performance.”

The SAND project will use state of the art battery testing and microscopy facilities within the Bernal Institute at the University of Limerick.

Dr Geaney is part of Si-DRIVE which is an EU-funded project co-ordinated by UL which is developing prototype silicon based anodes for EVs.