Texas A&M student proposes battery alternative
Jaybelle Pranada attended the Catalyzing Energy Education and Excellence Symposium and proposed a battery that maintains efficiency in extreme environments, like space.
Jaybelle Pranada holding her award at the C3E Symposium.
Ph.D. student Jaybelle Pranada attended the Catalyzing Energy Education and Excellence (C3E) Symposium at Arizona State University in April as part of an aerospace research group and presented her project that proposed alternate battery chemistries built to withstand low-temperature operation.
Each year, roughly 30 projects are selected nationwide to present at the symposium. There were nearly 100 submissions from across the country, and out of that group, Pranada placed in the top five.
The symposium was created by the U.S. Department of Energy to highlight students across the country that are dedicated to finding clean energy solutions to real world problems.
“There’s a lot more that goes into energy than I initially realized,” Pranada said. “You have to consider everything from policy and safety to reliability, cost and deployment. Seeing how all those pieces connect gave me a broader perspective on how complex energy challenges really are.”
Temperature-resistant batteries are necessary for everything from space exploration to the operation of electric vehicles. The team began by looking at traditional lithium-ion batteries, which underperform when temperatures fall below 0 or rise above 100 degrees Celsius. This is especially important for spacecraft and rovers sent outside of Earth’s atmosphere, where batteries must operate under harsh thermal conditions.
Pranada’s research focuses on developing computational models to explore alternative battery chemistries that may be better suited for extremely cold environments. Her work investigates both organic and inorganic energy-storage systems with the goal of identifying battery designs that can perform under harsh thermal conditions. These models help the team better understand the strengths and limitations of emerging battery technologies, allowing them to evaluate their potential for future applications and identify ways to improve.
The issue relates to how traditional lithium-ion batteries store and release energy. As temperatures decrease, the electrochemical processes that enable energy storage and delivery become significantly slower. When it gets too cold — as it often does in deep space — battery performance can degrade to the point that they no longer work.
The team theorizes that new materials can help address this challenge by using alternative polymers that can operate at temperatures as low as −50 degrees Celsius. These batteries, known as polymeric batteries, are developed from synthetic materials that can be readily synthesized and studied in the laboratory.
Those materials were then tested to withstand temperatures from the coldest Alaskan winter to the hottest Arizona summer. Pranada said the research was originally inspired by the need for batteries that can operate reliably in aerospace and space applications, where extreme temperatures can severely limit performance. While the work is motivated by challenges in spacecraft and planetary exploration, the resulting technologies could also benefit electric vehicles, defense systems and other applications that require dependable energy storage in cold environments.
One of Pranada’s favorite parts of the conference was being surrounded by students who were also working towards building the future of energy and seeing how their work can impact industry.
“It motivates students to think beyond the technical challenges they work on every day. The broader your perspective, the more clearly you can see how your research fits into larger energy challenges and the impact it may have in the future,” she said.
Pranada decided to dedicate her academic career to energy storage because energy powers the technologies that shape modern life. From computers and phones to cars and lifesaving technology, everyone depends on it in some way.
“You look around and realize how much of modern life depends on energy storage,” Pranada said. “What is stopping us from developing these energy materials and fully harnessing our capabilities to create technologies that will change our lives?”
