Battery engineering

Liquid metal batteries operate at elevated temperatures exceeding 300 °C. Such batteries require therefore special cell designs to ensure high efficiency and long lifetime. One the one hand, the reactive metals need to be protected from the ambient atmosphere in order to avoid detrimental reactions. On the other hand, humidity must be kept away from the molten salt to avoid strong corrosion of the cell housing.

Work on battery design includes a vast variety of different tasks, including corrosion studies, selection of appropriate materials, design of connectors and current collectors, cell fabrication and risk assessment.

Publications

• Nash, W.; Sarma, M.; Lappan, T.; Trtik, P.; Solem, C. K. W.; Wang, Z.; Duczek, C.; Béltran, A.; Weber, N.; Weier, T.
  Diaphragm performance of high-temperature Na–Zn cells evaluated by neutron imaging
  Journal of Energy Storage 114(2025) 115542
• Duczek, C.; Horstmann, G. M.; Ding, W.; Einarsrud, K. E.; Gelfgat, A. Y.; Godinez-Brizuela, O. E.; Kjos, O. S.; Landgraf, S.; Lappan, T.; Monrrabal, G.; Nash, W.; Personnettaz, P.; Sarma, M.; Sommerseth, C.; Trtik, P.; Weber, N.; Weier, T.
  Fluid mechanics of Na-Zn liquid metal batteries
  Applied Physics Reviews 11(2024), 041326
• Weber, N.; Duczek, C.; Monrrabal, G.; Nash, W.; Sarma, M.; Weier, T.
  Risk assessment for Na-Zn liquid metal batteries
  Open Research Europe 4(2024) 236
• Sarma, M.; Lee, J.; Nash, W.; Lappan, T.; Shevchenko, N.; Landgraf, S.; Monrrabal, G.; Trtik, P.; Weber, N.; Weier, T.
  Reusable cell design for high-temperature (600°C) liquid metal battery cycling
  Journal of the Electrochemical Society 171(2024) 040531