Prof. Ali Coskun (UNIFR, Chemistry) is awarded a SNSF Sinergia Grant for his Ambitious Research into All Solid-State Batteries

Professor Ali Coskun and his research team have just been awarded a prestigious 4-year SNSF Sinergia grant for their groundbreaking project entitled “Pushing All Solid-State Batteries to Their Full Potential – Interface Engineering Guided by Advanced Diagnostics for High Performance Scalable Batteries.”

In the context of a real boom around the world in demand for renewable energy technologies and an increasing need to store this energy safely, for instance to power electric vehicles, this exciting new project proposes to develop research into all solid-state batteries. 

Indeed, the batteries that are now most often used in electric cars or in mobile phones are lithium-ion batteries. These pose a significant fire hazard because the liquid electrolyte that connects anode (+) and cathode (-) in lithium-ion batteries is flammable, as several incidents in the past few years (notably with mobile phone batteries) have demonstrated. 

All solid-state batteries instead contain a solid electrolyte. Still at the research stage, they would provide a safer alternative to lithium-ion batteries, and one that would procure increased energy density as well. However, all solid-state batteries also come with their own challenges, mainly due to interfacial instability that causes inferior rate performance and reduced long-term cyclability (the measure of the number of times a battery can be recharged before it begins to break down). Prof. Coskun’s project aims to understand and solve these problems in order ultimately to permit mainstream use of all solid-state batteries, opening the way to a safer, and greener, future. 

Prof. Coskun chose a particularly international and collaborative approach for this project, seeking partners whose expertise in different fields will enable him to solve important issues inherent to all solid-state batteries, notably relating to interface and engineering: his group will collaborate with the Paul Scherrer Institute, the EPFL, and Seoul National University.

Want to know more about Prof. Coskun’s research? Here are a couple of recent publications linked to this project: 

Zhou, T.; Zhao, Y.; El Kazzi, Mario; Choi, J. W.; Coskun, A "Stable Solid Electrolyte Interphase Formation Induced by Monoquat-Based Anchoring in Lithium Metal Batteries," ACS Energy Lett., 2021, DOI:10.1021/acsenergylett.1c00274. 

Zhou, T.; Zhao, Y.; Choi, J. W.; Coskun, A. "Lithium Salt Mediated Synthesis of a Covalent Triazine Framework for Highly Stable Lithium Metal Batteries," Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2019, 58, 16795-16799

Interested in applying for a Sinergia grant? The next deadline is 1 December 2021. Our team at SPR will be happy to assist you in this endeavour! Contact us at research@unifr.ch.