Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have uncovered a path to design superionic polymer electrolytes for solid-state batteries and other energy applications that could help ensure a future of abundant and reliable energy for the United States. The scientists demonstrated that by carefully controlling the chemical composition of a lithium salt-based polymer, they could create a material that enables superfast transport of ions in batteries and many other energy storage and conversion technologies.

A research team has uncovered the genomic basis behind why some vine tea varieties accumulate far more dihydromyricetin than others.

Researchers have developed a decision-aware forecasting framework for photovoltaic-battery energy storage systems, or PV-BESS, that improves how solar generation is predicted for day-ahead scheduling. Instead of treating forecasting and operational decision-making as two separate steps, the new approach trains the forecasting model to account directly for downstream scheduling objectives such as economic return and output smoothness. The result, according to the study, is a system that not only predicts well, but also helps the storage system operate more profitably and more stably.

Researchers have identified how in-plane temperature gradients inside lithium-ion batteries can either protect cells during fast charging or dramatically accelerate their degradation, offering a new way to think about battery thermal management. The study suggests that not all temperature gradients are harmful by default. Instead, performance depends on whether the hotter regions inside the battery are spatially aligned with the areas carrying higher current density.