Extreme winter weather can strain power systems, stall electric vehicles and leave backup batteries unable to deliver energy when it is most needed. Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a battery design that continues operating through the coldest conditions.
The team, led by Dr. Jodie Lutkenhaus, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering, published findings on a polymer-based battery in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
Lutkenhaus said battery performance suffers in cold weather because conventional batteries contain a liquid electrolyte that transports the charge. “If that electrolyte freezes, then charge can no longer be transported. Hence, the battery will not charge or discharge.
“We saw exactly this issue in the cold snap in Chicago in 2024, where electric vehicle batteries were so cold and frozen that they did not charge at their powering stations,” she said.
The team’s new battery design is capable of maintaining functionality in temperatures as low as 40° below zero.
“We’re able to do this because we replace the liquid electrolyte that freezes with a different electrolyte that does not. We also replace the hard inorganic materials that are sluggish at low temperatures with soft polymer materials that are a bit faster,” Lutkenhaus said.
The researchers created an organic dual‑ion battery that uses redox‑active polymers instead of the inorganic electrode materials found in most commercial batteries. They combined these polymer electrodes with a diglyme‑based low‑temperature electrolyte, which remains fluid and conductive at temperatures where conventional electrolytes begin to crystallize.
As a result, the battery maintained 85 percent of its capacity at 0 °C (32 °F) and 55 percent at minus 40 °C (minus 40 °F), while sustaining high specific power rates.
Battery chemistry relies on the movement of ions through an electrolyte; as temperatures drop, this motion slows dramatically.
With their new battery design, the team avoided such collapse by pairing the low‑temperature electrolyte with soft polymer electrodes, which remain flexible and maintain electrochemical activity even as the system cools. “Hard inorganic materials are often slow at low temperatures, but soft polymer materials can move ions more easily,” she said.
“When you use materials that naturally tolerate the cold, the battery doesn’t have to fight its own chemistry.”
Here is an exclusive Tech Briefs interview, edited for length and clarity, with Lutkenhaus.
Tech Briefs: What was the biggest technical challenge you faced while developing this new battery design?
Lutkenhaus: We wanted to create a battery that operated at low temperatures, but most normal batteries contain an electrolyte that is liquid, and the liquid freezes at sub-zero temperatures. So, that was challenge number one — develop an electrolyte that doesn't freeze and that is compatible with our materials. We found an electrolyte with a really low melting or freezing point, and that worked out really well for us.
The other technical challenge was that, at low temperatures, the ion motion into the electrode is slowed down. It's not blocked; it's just really slow because at a low temperature you're asking an ion to traverse from one phase to another phase. There's a big energy barrier associated with hopping across boundaries, especially at low temperatures. So, what we did was we used electrodes made of polymers, and they're softer so they provide a lower energy barrier for ion transport across the interface at low temperatures. In total, the battery is organic polymer-based, but it can operate at low temperatures.
Tech Briefs: Do you have any set plans for further research, work, etc.?
Lutkenhaus: Absolutely. This was our very first demonstration of the low temperature dual ion battery. With it being the first, there are lots of ways that I see improvement. We can have better electrolytes that are compatible with even lower temperatures. But the big thing that I see that has to be addressed is the energy density. For this to be commercially relevant, we need to get the energy density up, and that means we need to use polymer electrodes that can transport more electrons, that can store more energy. So our second generation will be creating electrodes that have a higher energy density.
Tech Briefs: Do you have any advice for researchers aiming to bring their ideas to fruition?
Lutkenhaus: As I tell my students, most of your experiments are not going to work. So you have to be persistent and resilient, and every failure is a new discovery. It's a new guide star of not to go down that path. You have to work really hard to get through the failure so that you can have that one success. And success does not come on the first try, that's why you have to keep going at it and never give up.
Tech Briefs: Those are all the questions I have. Is there anything else you'd like to add that I didn't touch upon?
Lutkenhaus: I'd like to acknowledge the folks who funded the work: the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Welsh Foundation.
