2023 Charles Hatchett Award winners announced
Joule 6, 1654–1671, July 20, 2022 1655
The winning paper of the 2023 Charles Hatchett Award demonstrates how niobium can contribute to the potential development of better performing cathode-materials in next-generation lithium-ion batteries by offering design principles for zero-strain cathodes that eliminate this problem. Combining theory and experiment, the authors established chemical composition, ionic ordering, and metal coordination as three major factors that influence the volume change in cathode structures. Once established, these factors are used to synthesise cathode compositions that undergo quasi-zero volume change on cycling.
The search for the Charles Hatchett Award winner is wide ranging and covers niobium alloys, oxides and other compounds and their applications in oil and gas, aerospace, automotive, construction, biomedical, electronics, energy generation and storage and chemical applications including catalysts and glass products. Each has the potential for global impact and competition for the award is strong with hundreds of papers being reviewed in the process.
The selection process of the Charles Hatchett Award is concerned with technical excellence and originality, but also takes account of the social, economic and environmental advantages of any proposed application of niobium. The paper was praised by the international panel of judges for its potential to make a significant technological impact on other important industrial sectors such as secondary batteries and aerospace industries. The panel also felt that the paper was an exemplar of high-calibre research published in a quality journal.