Early career researcher Dr Zhenjiang Yu, alongside Chemistry lecturer Dr Xiao Hua of Lancaster’s Chemistry Department, have been awarded £173k of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions £260M grant dedicated for postdoctoral research intended to foster innovation and excellence within the scientific fields. The Marie Curie Actions fund is highly competitive, with only approximately 1200 out of 8000 applicants across all scientific disciplines receiving funding, and only 14% of those successful applicants coming from within the field of chemistry.

The funding will be used to support Dr Yu and Dr Hua’s work on “DistroElesis”, a project working on developing new types of lithium-ion batteries with a vastly superior performance than the battery technology currently available allows. This advancement in batteries is set to have a huge impact in the UK and globally. They could support both the UK and the EU achieve their net-zero targets and phase out fossil-fuel powered vehicles quicker than it was originally anticipated.

Their research specifically explores the way in which “disordered materials” (materials without a regular structure, such as liquids) are used to support the design of new types of electrodes and cathodes with higher efficiency and capacity than their “structurally ordered” counterparts – that is to say, electrodes made out of metals or carbon-based materials. With the use of electrochemical methods, Dr Yu and Dr Hua aim to reinvigorate the rechargeable battery industry with safer, more effective batteries that will help vehicle manufacturers such as Volkswagen and BMW to achieve their goal to transition to fully electric vehicles by 2035. The potential uses in this industry alone are far-reaching and could additionally lead to breakthroughs in many other industries. This type of real-world application makes impact that can be seen globally over time.

With the Marie Curie Action funds in place, the team aim to kick off the project in October, with the project intended to run for two years. Dr Hua remarked that he was “thrilled that the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fund thinks so highly of our project” and that he was “grateful for the opportunities that the EU has provided to early-career researchers such as ourselves.”.

Dr Yu also added that “as a Marie Curie fellow, I am deeply honoured to receive this prestigious opportunity to further explore and contribute to the high-energy-density battery. Marie Curie's groundbreaking work serves as an inspiration to all scientists, and I am committed to upholding her legacy of curiosity, dedication, and innovation in my research endeavours.”

These researchers recently received Catalyst funding which helped to pump-prime their application to the Marie Curie Action fund. Such investments can be the springboard to future funding opportunities across many departments.