Oxford Instruments has announced a new R&D collaboration with the University of Oxford’s Department of Materials and the Henry Royce Institute. It will work to accelerate research in future battery technologies by using benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to develop new methods to monitor reactions in battery cells and use this understanding to enhance their performance. It aims to contribute to the UK’s industrial strategy to fight climate change through the development of new technology for net zero-emission vehicles and will contribute to realising practical lifetimes for beyond Li–ion technologies such as the lithium–air battery that promises a step-change improvement in energy density.
The researchers will use the X-Pulse, Oxford Instruments’ broadband X-nucleus, benchtop NMR spectrometer, to characterise the behaviour of a wide range of different elements within novel battery material formulations during electrochemical processes. Critical to the project is the development of in operando NMR operation in an inert glovebox environment.
