What’s Really Inside Your Battery?
Join AIBN PhD student Tanika Duivenvoorden as she dives deep into the atomic world of battery materials—using computer modeling to revolutionize how we design batteries. Forget slow trial-and-error: Tanika’s work speeds up the search for safer, faster-charging, and higher-capacity batteries that will power our net-zero future. Plus, she’s turning CO₂ into clean fuels, helping shape a greener tomorrow.
Transcript
00:00:01 The future of our natural world hinges on a global transition from fossil fuels to renewables like solar and wind. But what happens when the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow? That's where batteries play a crucial role in storing our energy for when we need it. But have you ever looked at a battery and wondered what's going on in there? The
00:00:24 middle part of the battery called the electrolyte is like a river which carries lots of positive and negatively charged particles called ions. Fundamentally, a battery works by storing these ions on one side of the battery and then fing them back and forth across the river, charging and discharging the battery. How quickly these ions move through the river is
00:00:45 very important for battery performance. And understanding the different pathways that these particles can take through the electrolyte allows us to design new shapes and terrains within our material to optimize this movement. Despite being invented 200 years ago, scientists are still using trial and error to investigate new battery materials, wasting copious amounts of time and
00:01:08 money on things that just don't work. But there is a better way, and that's where my thesis is making an impact. I use a computer to create a model of what an electrolyte looks like at an atomic level, zooming into a battery, like a microscope, only 1,000 times more. My computer and I will give every atom in my electrolyte material a force field. And when these atoms come close to each
00:01:31 other, they bounce off one another, kind of like a massive game of bubble soccer. This allows me to create a movie of how all the atoms in my material move over time. Some rivers may have too many rocks in the way which prevent our ions from moving through quickly. Others might be too thick, like having a river of honey. And understanding these properties at an atomic level allows us
00:01:54 to design better materials from the ground up. I have run hundreds of simulations of many different electrolytes to see which will give us the top speed. And then only the winners of the race need to be tried out in a real world laboratory which reduces our chemical waste. With an optimized electrolyte, our batteries will charge faster and hold more energy. My research
00:02:17 focuses on finding new materials which avoid the use of flammable and toxic compounds so that the batteries I make will not only contribute to a more sustainable future, but a safer one. This method of material investigation and the electrolytes I found could transform the battery industry, creating technology that is becoming more and more vital with every day we work
00:02:40 towards preserving our environment and achieving net zero carbon emissions.