AI Breakthrough at NJIT Unlocks 'New' Materials to Replace Lithium-Ion Batteries
Published: Thursday, July 31, 2025


The open, sponge‑like network inside a porous transition‑metal oxide lets the larger, doubly- or triply-charged ions travel during a battery’s charge and discharge cycles.

Researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have used artificial intelligence to tackle a critical problem facing the future of energy storage: finding affordable, sustainable alternatives to lithium-ion batteries.

In research published in “Cell Reports Physical Science”, the NJIT team led by Professor Dibakar Datta successfully applied generative AI techniques to rapidly discover new porous materials capable of revolutionizing multivalent-ion batteries. These batteries, using abundant elements like magnesium, calcium, aluminum and zinc, offer a promising, cost-effective alternative to lithium-ion batteries, which face global supply challenges and sustainability issues.


…

“Our AI tools dramatically accelerated the discovery process, which uncovered five entirely new porous transition metal oxide structures that show remarkable promise,” said Datta. “These materials have large, open channels ideal for moving these bulky multivalent ions quickly and safely, a critical breakthrough for next-generation batteries.”

…

With these encouraging results, Datta and his colleagues plan to collaborate with experimental labs to synthesize and test their AI-designed materials, pushing the boundaries further towards commercially viable multivalent-ion batteries.