The current drive to ‘de-carbonise’ energy production and transport has led to an increasing demand for high-density, high-power, energy storage systems. Lithium-ion batteries can fulfill many of these energy storage requirements, but in many cases increases in storage capacity and cell longevity are required, especially for transport applications. A further issue is materials availability – most lithium-ion battery cathodes utilize rare and expensive metals (Co, Ni, Mn) which hamper the large scale adoption of these technologies.

We have been working to address these challenges by focusing on the development of lithium-ion cathode materials which utilize earth abundant elements, with a particular focus on iron – an element which is challenging to incorporate within high-voltage cathode materials. In addition, we have been investigating the role of oxygen redox processes in high energy-density systems. Recent work on some novel Fe-based cathode materials will be presented along with work looking at oxygen redox processes in model cathode systems.