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Alex Huang in the FREEDM Center Laboratory

Alex Huang, Xiangwu Zhang, Peter Fedkiw and Saad Khan have been awarded $1,349,752 by the US Dept. of Energy (DOE) for research on new High-Energy Nanofiber Anode Materials.

The award will run from September 16th, 2009 to August 15th, 2012.

Research Abstract - The objective of the proposed work is to use electrospinning technology to integrate dissimilar materials (lithium alloy and carbon) into novel composite nanofiber anodes, which simultaneously have high energy density, reduced cost, and improved abuse tolerance. The nanofiber structure also allows the anodes to withstand repeated cycles of expansion and contraction. These composite nanofibers are electrospun into nonwoven fabrics with thickness of 50 ?m or more, and then directly used as anodes in a lithium-ion battery. This will eliminate the presence of non-active materials (e.g., conducting carbon black and polymer binder) and result in high energy and power densities. The nonwoven anode structure also provides a large electrode-electrolyte interface and, hence, high rate capacity and good low-temperature performance capability.