Microwave sintered High-Entropy Alloys as Sodium-ion Battery Anodes

Purpose and goal:

The project has been financed as part of the competence center program´s SME funding within the framework of the competence center BASE. The goal is to develop Percyroc´s innovative microwave sintering low-energy manufacturing process for high-entropy alloys. Due to their high theoretical capacity, alloys are promising as active anode materials for sodium-ion batteries.

Here, we introduce microwave sintering to lower the cost and time for developing solid-solution-strengthened high-entropy alloys (HEA). Expected results and effects:

The project will develop a new production process for sodium-ion batteries. This process is based on microwave sintering of high-entropy alloys used as electrodes in sodium-ion batteries. The project will strive to demonstrate the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and time-efficiency of the new production method i.e. microwave sintering.

This project fits well into the BASE competence center framework as it allows developing new battery production processes to strengthen the collaboration between academia and industrial partners. Approach and implementation:

The project is a collaboration between Chalmers and Percy Roc, within the BASE competence center hosted at Uppsala University. The project will develop new battery production processes to achieve some of the UN environmental goals regarding the sustainability and energy efficiency of the manufacturing processes. No other current project within BASE investigates high entropy alloys.

The planned implementation is first to develop the microwave sintering tool, then to use it to produce high entropy alloys, and finally provide sintered materials to the researchers in BASE.