How do we make battery storage cheaper and more sustainable for the energy grid? New research looks at how promising sodium-ion battery materials change their structure during charging. Understanding these changes could help researchers design better, longer-lasting batteries. 👉️

New insights into sodium-ion cathode material could help improve battery lifetime for large-scale energy storage - Cavendish Laboratory Department of Physics

Researchers have uncovered new details about how a promising sodium-ion battery material changes while charging, offering a potential route to longer-lasting batteries for storing renewable energy.…

phy.cam.ac.uk

The final stop on my US trip was @stanforduniversity.bsky.social, where I was kindly invited to give a talk. Thanks to everyone who joined in person/online, especially for the excellent questions! Throughout this trip, I've had an amazing time, met so many great people, and seen such exciting labs!

NASSCC @iowastateu.bsky.social was a blast! We visited @amesnatlab.bsky.social where we saw powerful magnets, an automated lab and their state of the art solid state NMR lab! Final stop: @stanforduniversity.bsky.social where I'll be giving my last invited seminar of the trip!

Great week @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social for Winton-Kavli exchange! I was privileged to chair "Scientists in Industry" panel, and to see work happening at Berkeley through meeting students and Profs! Next stop: @iowastateu.bsky.social for the North American Solid State Chemistry Conference!

Amazing few days visiting Raphaële Clément and Ram Seshadri at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social! Grateful to share my work at the inorganic seminar! Lucky to join my "academic grandfather" Tony Cheetham for lunch and to learn about early Rietveld refinements! Next stop: @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social!

Arrived in the US for the first time last week! First stop: great few days with Prof. Joshua Bocarsly. Great to see your labs and meet your students! It was a joy to give my first invited international talk @uh.edu , where I discussed my PhD work. Next stop: @ucsb.bsky.social

As much as I love RAL, nothing quite compares to being at the EPN campus, nestled in the mountains! We're just finishing another successful week at @illneutrons.bsky.social on D4, measuring diffuse (and coherent!) scattering on a range of interesting compounds for magnetic refrigeration!

Happy 60th birthday to Clare🎉🎊🥳 we wish you best of health and all the success of this world !!!

Paid internships for undergraduate students from a UK university: We are excited to announce that this year as well we will be hosting several interns under @FaradayInst Fuse scheme for battery projects. Please check the link www.faraday.ac.uk/fuse-interns... and spread the word 🥼🧪🔋

FUSE Internships 2025

In the summer of 2025, the Faraday Undergraduate Summer Experience (FUSE) internship programme is providing 48 internships for undergraduate students to undertake paid-eight week placements with batte...

faraday.ac.uk

My first lead author paper is now live @pubs.acs.org Chemistry of Materials! We solve the structure of the first desodiated phase in NaxNiO2 (x=2/3) via X-ray/neutron diffraction, solid state NMR, and DFT/AIMD. Ni charge- and Na vacancy-ordering play an important role! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Structural Elucidation of Na2/3NiO2, a Dynamically Stabilized Cathode Phase with Nickel Charge and Sodium Vacancy Ordering

NaNiO2 (NNO) has been investigated as a promising sodium-ion battery cathode material, but it is limited by degradation-induced capacity fade. On desodiation, NNO forms multiple phases with large supe...

pubs.acs.org

Our latest experiment was the cat's μ! We just wrapped up in-/ex-situ μ-SR on EMU @isisneutronmuon.bsky.social! We're looking into sodium dynamics in the phases which form when NaNiO2 is electrochemically cycled, and could even measure whilst dis/charging thanks to the Battery and Muon cell!

New YouTube clickbait thumbnail acquired! ✅ Oh, and data too. Lots and lots of data... We just wrapped up our latest BAG session at @diamondlightsource.bsky.social I-11, where we measured operando SXRD during battery cycling. We're able to watch structures evolve in real time during charging!

Structural Elucidation of Na2/3NiO2, A Dynamically Stabilised Cathode Phase with Ni Charge- and Na Vacancy- Ordering Authors: James Mark Alexander Steele, Annalena R Genreith-Schriever, Joshua D Bocarsly, Liam Agostino Vincenzo Nagle-Cocco, ... DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-3k58h

The first paper from my PhD is now available @chemrxiv.bsky.social! We solve the structure of the first desodiated phase in NaxNiO2 (x=2/3) via X-ray and neutron diffraction, solid state NMR, and DFT/AIMD. Ni charge- and Na vacancy-ordering play an important role!

It's the most wonderful time of the year... By which I of course mean the RSC Solid State Chemistry ECR and Christmas meetings! Thanks so much for the opportunity to give a talk and poster presentation on our work which should be coming to ChemRxiv soon. Happy Holidays all!

Last week we visited GEM at ISIS Neutron and Muon Source for a very *cool* neutron diffraction experiment! (5 K to be specific...) We were able to observe additional magnetic Bragg peaks below the magnetic ordering temperature of our material! Huge thanks to our instrument scientists for their help!

Rietveld! GNNs! PDF! GANs! If these things mean something to you (or if you'd like to learn more) tune in on Wednesday (2pm GMT) for the next Faraday masterclass. Led by Andy Sode Anker, we'll be delving into how to use AI/ML methods to analyse scattering and spectroscopic data. lnkd.in/e8qFJvD5

Faraday Masterclass: Machine Learning/AI analysis methods for scattering/ | LinkedIn

Faraday Masterclass series with expert presenters from the field of battery technology and energy storage. Join our 45th Faraday Masterclass on Machine Learning/AI analysis methods for scattering/spec...

lnkd.in

We visited ESRF BM23, for an exciting follow-up to our variable temperature EXAFS, recently published in JACS. This time featuring diamond anvil cells, higher temperatures, and diffraction! Thanks to our local contact Yimin Mijiti for going above and beyond for this experiment!

Hi All! Trying to move away from The Bad Place, for now my other socials are below. Expect beamline experiments and conference updates on here going forward! Twitter: @jamessteelenano Linkedin: j-m-a-steele