Researchers at the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), led by Professor Ashok Kumar Nanjundan, have been awarded A$1.3 million (about US$923,000) through the Australian Research Council's Future Fellowship scheme to develop self-healing sodium-ion battery electrodes that combine specially engineered, defect-rich graphene with dynamic polymer networks to repair mechanical damage during operation.
Rechargeable batteries gradually lose performance through repeated charging and discharging, as the resulting mechanical stress causes microscopic cracks, loss of electrical contact, and electrode deterioration - a problem that becomes more pronounced as thicker electrodes are developed to increase energy storage. In the proposed design, the graphene provides highly conductive electron pathways while helping researchers engineer the interfaces within the electrode, while the dynamic polymer networks are designed to reconnect damaged regions as cracks and other defects develop during cycling.
The project aims to design electrodes that actively reconnect damaged regions and restore contact as defects form, rather than allowing damage to accumulate progressively over hundreds of cycles.
The research focuses on sodium-ion batteries, an emerging technology that could complement lithium-ion batteries in applications such as stationary energy storage, where cost, lifetime, sustainability, and supply-chain resilience matter most, though Professor Nanjundan noted the technology could also benefit lithium-ion battery electrodes. The project will additionally investigate thick, solvent-free electrodes, linking the underlying materials research to the manufacturing challenges of producing advanced batteries at scale.
"Every rechargeable battery gradually ages as it is used, but our research asks a simple question: what if a battery electrode could repair this damage itself?" said Professor Nanjundan. "My vision is to move from batteries that simply tolerate damage to batteries that can actively repair it. If we can understand and control that process, we could create longer-lasting batteries while reducing waste and making energy storage more sustainable."
