Linda Nazar is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo, and a Canada Research Chair in Solid State Energy Materials. Yaser Abu-Lebdeh is a Senior Research Officer at the Clean Energy Innovation Research Centre at the National Research Council (NRC) and Team Leader specializing in Advanced Battery Technology.
The project explores the use of nickel-based cathode active materials (CAM) such as LiNixMnyCozO2 (NMC) to improve lithium-ion battery technology and help launch proposed next generation all-solid-state batteries. Nazar and Abu-Lebdeh aim to overcome structural and interfacial challenges to enable higher nickel content, Co-free CAMs, in lithium-ion technology.
Due to a limited understanding of NMC materials with a nickel fraction greater than 85%, new and innovative methods must be developed to enhance their bulk and interfacial stability while maintaining characteristic energy density. The development of these new next generation energy systems (especially for solid state batteries) will be facilitated through the expertise shared by these researchers.
The collaboration between Nazar and Abu-Lebdeh builds upon the existing Critical Battery Materials Initiative (CBMI) at the NRC by significantly expanding into solid state batteries that will be enabled by innovation of new solid-state electrolytes (SE’s) designed for the high Ni-CAMS. This technology has the potential to disrupt the battery and EV industry by allowing the production of cheaper batteries that can provide longer driving range.
