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OScAR - Operando Screening of emerging Anodes for Na-based stationary storage of Renewable energy

The ambition of the OScAR project is to facilitate future commercial development of Na-ion batteries (NIBs) for stationary energy storage by establishing a fundamental understanding of a family of Sn-based anode materials capable of boosting the capacity of existing NIBs.

About the project

OScAR will perform state-of-the-art operando compositional screening down to atomic-scale of Sn-based anodes. Observing the real-time evolution of battery components with parallel measurements of their electrochemical response can elucidate the operating mechanism of Sn-based anodes during cycling - a necessity for future materials’ optimization. The final goal of OScAR is the demonstration of a practical Sn-based NIB. The development of high-performing, cost-efficient, and “user-friendly” batteries can facilitate the deployment of renewable energy harvesting, allowing to decrease the CO₂ emissions responsible for climate change.

The OScAR project aims to develop effective strategic steps with the challenge to cover the whole ‘value-chain’, starting from

understanding the fundamentals of the operational mechanism of new energy storage materials
to methodological development of a complementary operando scheme (TEM+XRD+PDF)
demonstrating of a full Na-ion battery with a new SnX-anode

Financing

The project is financed by the Research Council of Norway (no. 343478 (NFR.no)). Grant amount: 8 million NOK.

Project period

2024-2026

Collaborations and infrastructure

The OScAR project will use state-of-the-art facilities from 4 national infrastructure investments at UiO and 2 international. The Norwegian Centre for Transmission Electron Microscopy (NorTEM) facility at the Dept. of Physics UiO offers a modern infrastructure equipment, combining state-of-the-art (S)TEM microscopes equipped with analytical devices. The Norwegian Advanced Battery Research Laboratory Infrastructure (NABLA) and the Norwegian Centre for X-ray Diffraction, Scattering, and Imaging (RECX) located at Dept. of Chemistry UiO will be used for electrochemical characterization and particle synthesis. Thin film deposition will be performed at MinaLab-UiO, node of the Norwegian Micro- and Nanofabrication (NorFAB) Facility, equipped with state-of-the-art growth facilities, such as magnetron sputtering and CVD systems, along with characterization laboratories as XPS and HRXRD. The project will also use the Swiss-Norwegian Beamline (SNBL) at ESRF and the TEM facility at DTU Nanolab for operando characterization of the materials.