A UCLA-led energy research center received $9.75 million to continue its research on how to improve rechargeable batteries.
The U.S. Department of Energy awarded the four-year grant to the Synthetic Control Across Length-scales for Advancing Rechargeables center Thursday and designated the center as one of its Energy Frontier Research Centers, according to a university press release. The Department of Energy awarded grants that totaled $100 million to 42 EFRCs.
The EFRC program, which was established by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science in 2009, integrates the efforts of universities, national laboratories, and both nonprofit and for-profit organizations to conduct energy research, according to the Office of Science’s website.
SCALAR will use the funding to further its research on new materials for building rechargeable batteries with the goal of making batteries safer, longer-lasting and more stable.
The center is led by Sarah Tolbert, a professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry and in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Bruce Dunn, chair of the department of materials science and engineering. Tolbert is the center’s director, and Dunn is the center’s associate director.
Other organizations involved with SCALAR include UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, the University of Southern California, Caltech and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, which is a Department of Energy laboratory.