A $200,000 award from New York state will allow Cornell researchers to develop new technologies for next-generation batteries.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) recently announced a total of $8 million in research grants to help develop or commercialize energy-storage projects. The grant to Cornell went to a group led by Emmanuel Giannelis, the Walter R. Read Professor of Engineering and director of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Giannelis and others will work with New York-based Primet Precision Materials Inc. to develop a family of novel electrolytes for advanced batteries to significantly improve electrochemical stability, and hence safety, of rechargeable lithium batteries.

The researchers will focus on a class of electrolytes that are nonflammable and can operate at voltages well beyond those that can be safely accessed by the lithium-ion batteries of today. The role of Primet Precision Materials will be to support transition of the technology to the marketplace.

Others from Cornell who will work on the project are Lynden Archer, the Marjorie L. Hart Chair and Director of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Héctor Abruña, the E.M. Chamot Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

NYSERDA announced the awards at a meeting of the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology (NY-BEST), a consortium created by Gov. David Paterson to support New York's energy storage industry.