Cooperative Agreement DEAR0000297

This $255,700 National Science Foundation Project Grant supports the development of sodium-based solid-state batteries for stationary energy storage by Unigrid LLC. The company will advance a novel halide-based sodium solid-state electrolyte material with the goal of improving its ionic conductivity by one to two orders of magnitude. Additionally, the company will explore scalable room-temperature synthesis routes. This research aims to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy generation by...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $978,993 Cooperative Agreement to Unigrid Inc. under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA #47.084) program. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project aims to develop and demonstrate a new non-flammable, cost-effective, and domestically-sourced stationary energy storage solution based on sodium-based solid-state battery technology. The goal is to advance the technology from the laboratory to a...

Mana Battery, Inc. received a $275,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084), awarded June 1, 2025, with completion targeted for May 31, 2026. The project focuses on developing novel electrolyte and interphase chemistries specifically tailored for sodium-ion batteries, with emphasis on addressing current performance limitations in battery lifetime, calendar life, and temperature stability that...

The National Science Foundation awarded Aesir Technologies Inc. a $847,543 cooperative agreement under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) to develop an aqueous lithium and zinc ion battery for stationary energy storage applications. Aesir will optimize individual battery components to improve cycle life, power, and scale production from pouch cells to larger prismatic cells. This includes refining intercalation electrodes to increase capacity retention...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) Project Grant award of $550,000 provides funding to The Washington University in St. Louis to develop high-performance, long-life electrodes for sustainable sodium-based batteries. The key objectives are to scale up cathode synthesis, demonstrate superior performance in large-format cells, and advance the fundamental understanding of the heat and mass transfer dynamics, interparticle interactions, and...

This $255,976 National Science Foundation project grant supports the development of a novel lithium-ion battery cathode chemistry by Nanodian, Inc. to enable lower cost and safer energy storage solutions. Specifically, the company will advance a nanostructured lithium manganese oxide (LiMn2O4 or ND-LMO) cathode material that is expected to provide approximately 30% lower cost per kilowatt-hour compared to incumbent nickel manganese cobalt oxide chemistries. This new material aims to improve...

This $418,716 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Materials Research aims to develop new ceramic materials for aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) with improved energy storage capabilities and cycling stability. The award, with a period of performance from August 2024 to July 2027, supports research at Drexel University to explore strategies for enhancing zinc-ion diffusion, suppressing cathode dissolution, and advancing electrochemical stability...

This $252,283 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Integrative Activities (CFDA 47.083) program supports research by the University of Kansas Center for Research Inc. to computationally design high-performing V2O5 cathode materials for zinc-ion batteries. The goal is to improve the performance and longevity of zinc-ion batteries as a safe, cost-efficient alternative to lithium-ion batteries for grid-scale energy storage. The research will employ advanced computational...

This $1,000,000 Cooperative Agreement awarded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program to Noon Energy Inc. aims to develop a new ultra-low-cost rechargeable carbon-oxygen battery for long-duration renewable energy storage. The key objectives are to create and validate a multi-physics model of the optimized reactor, design the optimized reactor and operating conditions, and build and test several prototypes to demonstrate the...

This $275,000 National Science Foundation project grant supports the development of nickel- and cobalt-free cathodes for high-energy and low-cost lithium-ion batteries by Fermi Energy, Inc. from March 1, 2023 to February 29, 2024. The grant is funded through NSF's Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084), which seeks to advance solutions to national challenges through breakthrough technologies. Specifically, Fermi Energy will design, manufacture, and characterize new...