Our current world runs on electricity, there’s no doubt about it. And as technology continues to evolve, the way we store our electricity needs to evolve as well. Luckily, University of Utah chemical engineering Ph.D. student Jing Liu is doing just that. Liu has been leading a team to create a new type of battery that is better for the power grid and the environment.
Liu created a new type of battery after her invention of two electrolytes, termed FERMI and FERCI in her paper. These electrolytes performed better than all the other existing alternatives. The low-cost battery is a type of iron metal battery based on iron chemistry that could be used for large-scale storage of wind and solar energy in the future. The current most popular battery for energy storage is the lithium-ion battery. Along with being better for the power grid and the environment, Liu says this new power-storage medium is also 10 times cheaper than the lithium-ion battery.
After about a year of work with her professors two undergraduate students, Alan Larrea Caro and Nicolai Sage Andreas, Liu created a new type of battery after her invention of the two electrolytes. While the entire team helped with the creation of the project, Liu carried out all the literature study, experiments, and data analysis.
It will be exciting to see where Liu and her team will take this technology and what the future holds for this brilliant invention.
More articles like this in ‘Student Innovation @ the U!’
Find this article and a lot more in the 2023 “Student Innovation @ the U” report. The publication is presented by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute to celebrate student innovators, change-makers, and entrepreneurs.
