Alice Beardmore’s (Natural Sciences (Physical) 2018 and Chemistry PhD 2022) PhD focuses on developing sustainable battery technologies, which will play an indispensable role in the transition to renewable energy.

Although often overlooked when thinking about sustainability, batteries are crucial for storing green energy and managing its supply to the grid. They provide “the key to being able to manage renewable energy transition”, says Alice.

Yet lithium-ion batteries, which comprise the majority of current rechargeable batteries, carry their own sustainability concerns: lithium is a limited resource within the earth and mining it has significant environmental impacts. Additionally, these batteries often work best with electrolytes of fluorinated compounds, which can form very toxic compounds when they come into contact with air or water.

Working under the joint supervision of Gonville & Caius College Fellow Professor Dominic Wright and Pembroke College’s Professor Dame Clare Grey as part of the Faraday Institution’s NEXGENNA Project, Alice is researching sodium-ion battery electrolytes, a more sustainable alternative.

“Right from the start of our ideas for new molecules, we want to think about sustainability and industrial feasibility,” says Alice. “We don’t want something that works in a beaker in the lab but that can’t be scaled up globally.

“We’re trying to come up with non-fluorinated alternatives for the electrolyte; however, this is a big challenge, because the fluorinated compounds work really well! So we’re studying the fluorinated molecules to better understand them and the mechanisms of how they work in the battery, which can then help us design new molecules.

“For the electrode materials we’re trying to use non-critical minerals that can be extracted from the earth with less energy. Some batteries use graphite, a lot of which is made synthetically from fossil fuels. But in sodium-ion batteries we use hard carbons, which can be derived from natural materials. You can use bio-waste to form these electrodes, which is then far more sustainable.”

Alice acknowledges that there are significant challenges to replacing sodium-ion with lithium-ion batteries. The supply chains for lithium-ion batteries have been set in place for decades, making them cheaper and easier to produce. Intrinsically, sodium-ion batteries are also less energy-efficient: looking at chemical potentials, a lithium atom can generate slightly more voltage (~0.3 V) than a sodium atom when forming the respective ion.

“However, if you consider that sodium is more abundant and globally distributed, we should be able to extract it more cheaply,” Alice adds. “Once the process has been scaled up, it should be cheaper to manufacture.

“A lot of research was done to optimise lithium batteries, but the sodium battery has not yet been optimised. Hopefully, once we’ve addressed a few of these problems, these batteries will become more mainstream.”

Alice has enjoyed her time at Caius, where she also completed her undergraduate studies in Natural Sciences, including an integrated Master’s degree which first sparked her interest in batteries. Her project involved working with a team to create new reagents to be put inside redox flow batteries, which are used in large-scale energy storage.

Alice is grateful for the opportunities and support the College has given her in pursuing her studies as well as musical and sporting activities. A keen violinist, she was the recipient of Caius’ Rudolph Peters Award and H. L. Perry Prize for Music in 2021. She has also been heavily involved in the University of Cambridge’s (field) Hockey and Ice Hockey clubs, achieving an Ice Hockey Full Blue in 2024 and running as Club President for two years. During her PhD she has been supported by Caius’ Bell-Wade Bursary, which assists students with the costs of pursuing excellence in sport as well as academic work.