Samara University scientists designed new materials for the accumulator of the future

Scientists of Samara University (joined SSAU and of SSU) have designed new materials for accumulator batteries, that will allow us to refuse from the use of a relatively scarce and expensive lithium in favour of a more widespread and cheap metals.
 

It is expected that the safety and energy efficiency of the future batteries will be comparable with the possibilities of the current lithium-ion accumulators, but their price will be much lower than their current counterparts.
 

By now, the scientists of SSAU Interuniversity Centre for Theoretical Materials Science (ICTMS) modelled promising solid electrolytes based on sodium, aluminium and potassium.
 

Calculations of properties for the future substances are made with the use of a software system ToposPro, developed by the scientists of ICTMS. This is a unique knowledge database, containing the information on more than 1 million substances that compose our planet, and a complex expert system, allowing to predict the way how a particular substance behaves in any given conditions. Then estimation made by the expert system is verified by a supercomputer of ICTMS.
 

“The initial substances databases are located in many scientific centres, but it is a “raw” information. On the basis of our original methods of rapid prediction of the structure and properties of substances we can get the next level information and to draw a conclusion about which substances are the most appropriate to achieve our goals. Nobody in the world can make this kind of prediction,” - emphasizes Vladislav Blatov, Director of ICTMS and SSAU Professor.
 

The forecasting data on the properties of designed solid electrolytes substances was transferred to Samara University partners - scientists of Technical University of Freiberg (Germany), Moscow State University, Institute of Metal Physics of Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Yekaterinburg). Predictive substances synthesis and creation on their basis of the new materials for accumulators will be performed in the laboratories of these research centres.
 

According to the forecasts of Samara scientists, prototypes of a new type of accumulators will appear in about five years. Mass production can be deployed by 2025. It is expected that manufacturers of electric cars will also become consumers of the future accumulators based on the created solid electrolytes. “I have no doubt that in 15 years electric cars will become quite a commonplace,” - expressed confidence SSAU Professor Vladislav Blatov.