{"id":34,"date":"2017-05-11T10:48:05","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T09:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/spskent\/?p=34"},"modified":"2017-09-25T12:52:24","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T11:52:24","slug":"sps-researchers-harnessing-geometric-frustration-to-tune-batteries-for-greater-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/spskent\/2017\/05\/11\/sps-researchers-harnessing-geometric-frustration-to-tune-batteries-for-greater-power\/","title":{"rendered":"SPS researchers harnessing geometric frustration to tune batteries for greater power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers from the University’s School of Physical Sciences<\/a> (SPS), working with scientists from other European institutions<\/strong>, formulated a recipe to increase the rate at which a solid material – an artificial mineral – can conduct charge.<\/p>\n

The team found that a phenomenon known as geometric frustration<\/strong> can be used in this process to increase the charge transport rate in the solid material in a way that is comparable with heating that material. <\/strong>Making use of this phenomenon, the team was able to \u2018tune\u2019 materials to be used in future batteries and fuel cells to speed up ionic conductivity.<\/p>\n

Lead researcher Dr Dean Sayle<\/a> and his team in SPS found that geometric frustration broke up the regimented formation of atoms<\/strong> in the material, leading to a more disordered pattern<\/strong>. This disordered pattern allowed the charge to pass through the material<\/strong> at a much higher rate.<\/p>\n

Dr Sayle said: \u2018Disorder can be created by geometric frustration which might be understood as randomly giving two kinds of differently sized umbrellas to a regimented parade of people and telling them to put them up and come as close together as the size of the umbrellas allow.<\/p>\n

\u2018Naturally, this will lead to a destruction of the former formation towards a disordered formation exhibiting a large number of gaps. Similarly, we used geometric frustration to make the atoms disordered by mixing two differently sized atoms together which increased charge transport by 100,000\u2019.<\/p>\n

As well as more powerful batteries, the new technique may lead to the development of new energy materials with zero- emissions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The paper, entitled Is Geometric Frustration-Induced Disorder a Recipe for High Ionic Conductivity?<\/em> <\/a>(Dean Sayle, Andre Duvel, Alan Chadwick, David Pickup, Silvia Ramos, Lewis Sayle, Emma Sayle, Thi Sayle, all University of Kent; Paul Heitjans, Leibniz Universita\u00a8t Hannover Germany; Pavel Fedorov, General Physics Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia; Gudrun Scholz, Humboldt-Universita\u00a8t zu Berlin Germany; Giannantonio Cibin, Diamond Light Source UK) is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Article originally published on the University of Kent News Centre<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n