Better, Safer Batteries: Research Motivates Step Changes in Battery Science

Contact: Lori Fogleman, 254-709-5959
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A Baylor University professor introduced an international audience to advanced techniques that could drive future breakthroughs in energy storage science, leading to better and safer batteries. Jonathan M. Larson, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, was invited to present April 10 at the Volta Foundation Battery Forum, the world’s largest virtual gathering of battery professionals across private industry, academia and government. 

“I was very happy to be asked to speak at the well-known Battery Forum, and honored to have been able to share my research in a breakout session for this month’s Forum,” said Larson, who joined the Baylor faculty in 2023 from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, where he remains an affiliate faculty member. “An invitation from the Volta Foundation provides a fantastic platform to share your research, network, and is also an indication that what you’re doing is of significant interest and value to the battery community, which is encouraging.”

At the Battery Forum, Larson’s presentation outlined his groundbreaking spectroscopic technique which provide unprecedented chemical and structural insights that can influence the future of energy storage by unveiling processes that take place at nanoscale-levels.

“Batteries are engineered with carefully designed bulk materials, even down to microscale precision, yet key performance limitations often arise from hidden interfacial processes that occur at the nanoscale – leading to an immense need for new methods that can sense such processes,” Larson said.

A nanoscale focus for big impact on battery science, performance, safety and more

Larson, an interdisciplinary scientist focused on electrical energy storage, has been at the forefront of groundbreaking techniques to understand interactions that take place between battery materials at the nanoscale. These interactions, previously obscured to researchers, carry significant meaning for the development of better batteries. 

“The common thread I pursue is a better understanding of regions within a battery where two different materials adjoin, called interfaces,” Larson said. “These interfaces are critically important to the operation and safety of state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries, as well as to nanoscale interfacial processes key to enabling new battery chemistries and technologies that could bring step changes in battery performance, sustainability and safety.” 

To achieve a nanoscale understanding of interfaces, Larson leverages interdisciplinary experience and expertise. He earned degrees in physics and mathematics before working for over a decade in the chemistry and materials science fields. At Baylor, he continues to combine techniques from this diversity of fields to pursue answers to basic science questions that could lead to the development of better batteries.

“I find that some of the most interesting problems from a basic science perspective, like batteries, reside in the blurred boundaries between disciplines and rather than isolating from one another or competing with each other, we should acknowledge individual strengths and weaknesses and join together in efforts, as the sum of our parts is better than those separated,” he said.

This unique synthesis of experience and expertise has allowed Larson to apply a new method called infrared nanospectroscopy (nano-FTIR) to characterize battery interfaces in a non-destructive manner while in their native environment, at the nanoscale – the subject of the Volta Foundation’s invitation. 

Before Larson’s work, battery researchers typically had to resort to opening cells to characterize interfaces, limiting what could be learned. Now, the nano-FTIR approach allows researchers to study battery material interfaces not only as they will be used by consumers, but at a resolution of one one-billionth of a meter. 

Larson is a lead author on the first paper that demonstrated nano-FTIR could be applied to electrochemical interfaces, in general. Since then, Larson has lead interdisciplinary collaborative efforts to pioneer nano-FTIR to study intact battery interfaces in anode-free batteries (Nature Communications, 2022), calendar aging in Si-anode batteries (ACS Nano, 2023) and the theory behind nano-FTIR (Advanced Functional Materials, 2024). The important advancements that these works provide to battery science also were a draw for the Battery Forum invitation.

“Jonathan Larson’s presentation to the Volta Foundation’s Battery Forum is a great opportunity to share his research and describe how it could be enabling to future developments in the battery industry. He presented the potential capabilities of his laboratory at Baylor, techniques and instrumentation that currently aren’t broadly accessible but can have a real impact,” said John L. Wood, Ph.D., The Robert A. Welch Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Baylor. “Jonathan has augmented Baylor’s expertise in experimental and theoretical physical chemistry and will be developing instrumentation that will provide valuable insight in numerous areas of research. We’re excited that Jonathan shared his research in a forum that highlighted Baylor’s capabilities to a broad international audience.” 

Influencing the world’s largest network of battery professionals

The Volta Foundation is an influential, global not-for-profit association of battery professionals, convening experts from industry, academia and government for disseminating research and commercial battery advancements and trends, networking and more. The Battery Forum, founded in 2019 as Battery Brunch, has grown to serve an average of 1,500 monthly attendees with focused topics and breakout discussions of interest to leading professionals. Larson joins a roster of past speakers that include faculty from Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford, along with industry leaders from Silicon Valley, auto manufacturers and more.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to have presented at Volta Foundation, and for the chance to share the work taking place in our lab and the methodology that we can do here at Baylor,” Larson said. “I’m particularly interested in building new collaborative pathways across academia and industry. The chance to create relationships with companies that see the nano-spectroscopy tools as a valuable asset opens doors to develop real-world applications, and this was a meaningful way to pursue that.”

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. Learn more about Baylor University at www.baylor.edu.

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The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments in the sciences, humanities, fine arts and social sciences, as well as 11 academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. The College’s undergraduate Unified Core Curriculum, which routinely receives top grades in national assessments, emphasizes a liberal education characterized by critical thinking, communication, civic engagement and Christian commitment. Arts & Sciences faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit the College of Arts & Sciences website.