Deakin leads research into battery of new technologies
DEAKIN University will oversee a research hub focusing on new safe, efficient and sustainable battery storage and conversion technologies, following a multi-million-dollar investment from the Federal Government.
The university will take stewardship of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Research Hub in New Safe and Reliable Energy Storage and Conversion Technologies.
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said the government was providing $5 million over five years for the hub, as part of $25 million to fund five new ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hubs to foster strategic partnerships between university-based researchers and industry.
Professor Ying (Ian) Chen, who is Deakin University’s chair in nanotechnology at the Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM), will lead the program and is excited to start planning operations aimed at delivering tangible benefits for society in the energy sector.
“One main goal is to develop new safe, efficient and sustainable energy storage and conversion technologies to eliminate the very serious fire risk and environmental issues caused by current technologies,” Prof Chen said.
“Energy reliability and sustainability are critically important to our society, and nowhere more so than in energy storage.”
Prof Chen said current technologies were reliant on the production of more than one billion lithium-ion batteries every year just to power consumer electronics, bringing with that significant issues around sustainability, end-oflife recycling and disposal.
Deakin’s Nanotechnology team at IFM has 20 years’ research experience developing advanced battery technology. The new program will draw together a network of 19 leading researchers from six Australian universities and aims to strategically position Australia as a world leader in the emerging energy storage and conversion sectors.