NSF AI grant $1.5M: AI-guided discovery of next-generation energy-storage materials — ion-conducting peptide electrolytes (DMREF)

The NSF awarded about $1,500,000 to AI-guided discovery of ion-conducting peptide electrolytes (NSF Award 2522611; program: DMREF / Biomaterials; Illinois).

Per the abstract (non-technical), energy-storage technologies like batteries critically require safe and thermally stable ion-conducting materials. Lithium-ion batteries are pervasive, but safety concerns have prompted new solid-state ion conductors. To date, nearly all solid polymer ion conductors are synthetic materials lacking precisely defined structures. In contrast, biological macromolecules such as peptides have precisely defined sequences, allowing control over 3D molecular structure, such as helical elements.

The project aims to understand the role of peptide helices in enhanced ion conduction, focusing on (1) arranging ion-conducting groups in controlled ways and (2) a macrodipole along the backbone that grows with helix length. This will enable a new class of helical peptide ion conductors for enhanced energy storage. A wide range of peptide chemistries will be designed and synthesized using an AI-guided discovery approach to understand how chemistry, sequence, helical character, and arrangement of ion-conducting groups affect performance — a key outcome being to understand how peptide molecular structure affects ion transport for next-generation energy-storage materials.