Strides in battery technology promise progress in energy efficiency

Advances in materials science, engineering design and chemistry are promising breakthroughs in energy storage that would improve the efficiency of energy production, distribution and consumption.

That progress is being pursued in efforts to develop a better thermal battery. Details are given in an article in the March 23 issue of Science magazine.

Among the three authors of the report is researcher Ravi Prasher, an adjunct faculty member in the School for Engineering or Matter, Transport and Energy, one of ASU's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

Prasher also is working for the Advanced Research Projects Agency under the U.S. Department of Energy, and doing research supported by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.

Improved materials coupled with new engineering designs could produce thermal batteries that store heat more effectively, according to the article. That achievement would open the way to more energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, as well as enhance energy generation from solar-thermal power plants.