International conference on multivalent batteries in Ulm (MagBatt IV)

Over 100 battery experts from Japan to India and the USA met in Ulm from 6 to 8 September 2022 to discuss the latest developments in batteries that do not require lithium. The 4th International Symposium on Magnesium Batteries (MagBatt), has been established in Ulm since 2016 and attracts researchers from all over the world. This time, the programme was expanded to include multivalent batteries in addition to magnesium batteries. This spectrum of topics was discussed in a total of 37 lectures and one poster session.
Multivalent batteries are based on magnesium, calcium, aluminium and zinc. They offer an interesting alternative in terms of the amount of energy that can be delivered, safety, manufacturing and disposal costs and limited environmental impact. The development of completely new battery chemistries is a major challenge. In particular, the high cationic conductivity of multivalent cations such as Mg2+ and Ca2+, Zn2+ or Al3+ is difficult to realise at ambient temperatures in solid-state electrolytes. Various phenomena have been discovered that can improve conductivity, such as nanoparticulate additives, nano-inclusion, stabilisation of disordered polymorphic forms with high dynamics in the solid state, etc. The development of electrodes compatible with high performance electrolytes is also difficult.

Program Highlights

Speaker	Institution	Title Presentation
Brian J. Ingram	Argonne National Laboratory, USA	Realizing the potential of high voltage Mg-batteries: From cathode to electrolytes
Chilin Li	Chinese Academy of Sciences, China	Activation and stabilization of Mg metal batteries by additive modulation
M. Rosa Palacin	Institut De Ciència De Materials De Barcelona, Spain	Seeking inorganic positive electrode materials for Ca batteries
Zhirong Zhao-Karger	KIT, Germany	Calcium alloy anodes for long-life calcium-ion batteries
Linda F. Nazar	University of Waterloo, Canada	Highly reversible Zn anodes and their function in Zn-ion batteries with various cathodes
Óscar Tutusaus	Toyota Research Institute of North America, USA	Electrolytes with new abilities for Mg metal anode
Jan Bitenc	National Institute of Chemistry, Slovenia	Multivalent metal-organic batteries (Mg, Ca, Al) and their electrochemical mechanism
Alberto Varzi	KIT, Germany	Reversible Zn anodes enabled by concentrated aqueous electrolytes and artificial interphases