Guinness cert for Pune-born researcher’s lithium-ion battery

Mumbai: A Pune-born researcher has made it to the Guinness World Records for building a lithium-ion battery (LIB) that can function at the extremely low temperature of minus 100°C.

Vilas Pol (47), a professor at the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University, came up with the innovation with the help of his research team called ‘Vilas Pol Energy Research (ViPER)’. The attempt by ViPER was declared successful by Guinness World Records judge Michael Empric on December 21, followed by a certificate presentation.

During the demonstration in ViPER’s specially designed ultra-low temperature lab, multiple LIBs were charged and discharged at a temperature of minus 100°C. The innovation is significant because it allows researchers to simulate the extremely cold environment found in lunar and space missions, high-altitude air vehicles and the polar regions of Earth.

The ViPER team comprises undergraduate and graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. “Their role was to design an instrument with the ability to reach extreme low temperatures and develop the electrolyte that makes the battery operational without freezing the electrolyte at that ultra-low temperature,” Pol said. “Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the Moon, was from Purdue,” he added. “Advanced lithium-ion batteries could be next from the same university.”

Pol was born and brought up in a farmer family from Otur village in Pune district and pursued his school and college education in the village. “As a child, I was always curious about the various things happening in science and technology, and therefore opted for the field of research,” he said. After graduation, Pol moved to Pune University to do his MSc and MPhil. “I was keen on doing research in nano technology but 20 years ago, we were way behind in the subject so I went to Israel for my PhD,” he said. He then joined Purdue University, Indiana, as a researcher.

The ViPER team continues to develop safer batteries that could work at extreme low (below 100° C) and high (above 50° C) temperatures. “Currently, standard commercial refrigeration chambers are the primary method used to evaluate low-temperature LIB performance down to minus 75°C with ice build-up on the batteries, but no chamber is capable of exceeding minus 100°C,” Pol said. “This inhibits the ability to research, develop, and demonstrate potential battery technologies.” ViPER’s innovative low-temperature system is capable of mimicking Mars and Moon surface temperatures as low as minus 175°C.

The ViPER team has filed numerous patents and published several articles on low-temperature LIB operations. In a research manuscript co-authored by Pol, the importance of “lithium-ion battery testing capable of simulating ultra-low lunar temperatures” was outlined. The article specifically addressed issues with accurate and reliable testing of LIBs in extremely cold environments similar to the International Space Station and the lunar surface.

In August 2018, Pol was the recipient of his first Guinness World Records certificate for arranging all elements of the modern periodic table in the quickest time. “I am grateful to my faculty colleagues, staff, students, and friends,” he said. “They are the strong pillars of my success story.”