Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Many taxi drivers discriminate against wheelchair users

by Amanda Hanson, Nottingham Trent University

We live in a society where disabled people routinely suffer identity-based discrimination resulting in them being made to feel unequal.

The recent article published by the BBC on the experience of disabled actress Ruth Madeley by a taxi driver, where he told her it was "too difficult" to drop her at an accessible entrance and it wasn't his problem if she couldn't use stairs, highlights just one example of disablist attitudes by transport providers.

This concurs to my current research where a severely visually impaired woman was dropped at the side of a busy road by a taxi driver, for which she then had to struggle to get across to the other side safely.

This kind of behavior by taxi drivers is more widespread within society than people may think. While many taxi drivers don't discriminate or have disablist attitudes some do.

My research has found that wheelchairs users are being told by taxi operators there are no accessible taxis available and that taxi drivers themselves are refusing to take those in powered wheelchairs.

One individual stated, "I approached five taxis who all refused to take me home when my power wheelchair was about to die."

If they do finally manage to access a taxi, they are being charged higher rates compared to those who are able-bodied.

These extra charges have previously been highlighted in an undercover study carried out by BBC's Inside Out in 2015. There has also been one landmark case where a taxi driver was taken to court after refusing to take a wheelchair user to the train station and causing her to become upset and missing her train.

Yet, six years on cases like this are still occurring and there seems to be a lack of consequence for the taxi drivers who are committing these discriminatory acts.

This is a clear breach of the Equality Act 2010 sect 165 & 167 which includes a requirement for drivers to accept and assist wheelchair users and make no extra charge. As a society, we should be calling out behavior that treats people unequally and unfairly as unacceptable. Local authorities should be implementing license bans for those committing this kind of behavior, as this targeting of wheelchair users should be deemed prejudicial.

Many wheelchair users rely on taxis rather than public transport, they are more convenient, and they are preferable especially when considering the negative often hostile attitudes that disabled people regularly experience from other passengers and public transport staff.

Disabled people often suffer isolation due to their disability which prevents them from fully taking part in society. Last year marked the celebration of 25 years since the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. While this legislation was a step in the right direction, one of those being the recognition of the lack of access to transport for disabled individuals, these access issues are still happening in the 21st century and this is a clear reminder that more needs to be done.

Similarly, numerous studies highlight that disabled people face economic disadvantages and are more likely to be living in poverty compared to those who are able-bodied. These higher charges are impacting upon them financially. Therefore, this discriminatory behavior from taxi drivers serves to compound the existing problems that disabled people have faced for years.

The key focus requires taking a stand against attitudes that reinforce disablism. Public organizations like local authority licensing departments need to develop public communications and implement awareness-raising to challenge these discriminatory mindsets and practices, to help safeguard wheelchair users and implement consequences for those who continue to exhibit discriminatory and disablist attitudes.

The implementation of these kinds of strategies would be a step in the right direction to address the extent of this issue, to allow wheelchair users to regain their independence within society.

Taxi driver unions protest Uber's return to Barcelona

More information: BBC article: www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-57838553
BBC Inside Out: www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-st … affordshire-31169638

Provided by Nottingham Trent University

How inheritance laws affect child height in India

by Binghamton University

Can an inheritance law lead to taller children? The answer is a qualified yes, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Md Shahadath Hossain, a fifth-year doctoral candidate, and Assistant Professor of Economics Plamen Nikolov recently published "Entitled to Property: Inheritance Laws, Female Bargaining, and Child Health in India," with the IZA Institute of Labor Economics.

"The question is important because it shows the critical importance of how better parental care and parental investments can have an enormous influence on child height," Nikolov said. "And we know from extensive economic research that height in early childhood is strongly predictive of cognitive ability, educational attainment, labor market outcomes and occupational choice in later life."

Indian children are extremely short, and not as a result of typical human height variation. They experience a phenomenon known as stunting, in which they don't grow as much as they otherwise would, due to factors such as malnutrition. Stunting affects 31 percent of Indian children under the age of five, surpassing their counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa and accounting for parental wealth and education.

While biology and genetics drive many health outcomes, individual behaviors also play an important role, particularly with such characteristics as height. At a population level, better nutrition and parental care can contribute to taller children, Nikolov pointed out. In the case of patrilineal Hindu communities in India, a pregnant woman is likely to receive more family resources—such as nutritious foods, iron supplements, tetanus shots and prenatal checkups—if there is a possibility that she is carrying the family's firstborn son.

Also at play is the non-unitary economic model of the household, in which partners tend to have unequal weight in decision-making due to power dynamics. The partner with more bargaining power—for example, from having more financial resources at their disposal—has more of a say in household decisions.

Men and women in a household also typically exhibit different economic preferences when it comes to extra resources. When women get an income boost, they often spend a higher portion on healthcare, better nutrition and education-related expenditures than men do, studies show.

Except for matrilineal tribal communities, Hindu populations in India traditionally pass ancestral property down the male line; this type of property, which goes back for up to four generations, is distinct from personal property, which can be allocated through wills and gifts to whomever the giver chooses. In 1956, the Hindu Succession Act Amendment (HSAA) enabled unmarried daughters to inherit ancestral property for the first time. This policy has led to a cascade of changes; women in states with the HSAA also tend to marry later and have fewer children, for example.

It also made an impact on child health and height—but only the health of some children.

Human capital

When you factor the HSAA into the non-unitary model of household economics, you find that women—newly empowered with their inheritance—have more of a voice in decision-making, the researchers found. Combined with the gender disparity in economic choices, that means more resources may end up spent on child health and parental care, from clinic visits to better nutrition and vaccinations.

That, in turn, can and does make children taller—if they're first-born sons.

"The difference may be due to religious as well as cultural norms," Nikolov explained. "Hinduism prescribes a patrilineal kinship system, meaning that aging parents live with their son, typically the eldest, and bequeath property. Also, Hindu religious texts stipulate that only a male heir performs certain post-death rituals, such as lighting the funeral pyre, taking the ashes to the Ganges River and organizing death anniversary ceremonies."

Because of this, Indian society has a marked preference for the eldest son, which leads families to reduce the resources that they could otherwise spend on later-born children and daughters. Unless policies are put into place to counteract the social and economic forces behind son preference, Indian daughters may continue to receive less than their fair share, he said.

Despite this caveat, their research demonstrates that improving the economic status of women in a developing country can generate additional benefits in improving child health, which is an important marker for both better health and economic well-being later in life.

"In sum, policies that empower women can pay big dividends in terms of a country's human capital and economic development," Nikolov said. "Investing in women is not just the right thing to do; it's also smart economics."

Can gender inequality kill? Paper looks at impact among older Indian women

More information: Paper link: www.iza.org/publications/dp/14 … hild-health-in-india

Provided by Binghamton University

Poorest people twice as likely to feel lonely in lockdown, as compared to richest people

by University College London

Older people in the poorest sector of the population were more than twice as likely to feel isolated and lonely during the first lockdown than the richest, finds a new study led by researchers from UCL and the University of Manchester.

The researchers analyzed data from 4,709 older men and women aged over 50 living in England who are part of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) to explore changes in the experiences of social isolation and loneliness during the pandemic.

Researchers collected data on 'subjective social isolation', which referred to how isolated participants felt, as well as 'objective social isolation', which was defined by levels of contact with friends and family members or engaging in social events such as video calls.

The research team collected data before the pandemic started, and then during the first COVID-19 lockdown in June and July 2020, and in the second COVID-19 lockdown in November and December 2020.

The findings show that 19% of all the respondents reported high levels of subjective social isolation and the prevalence was higher during both COVID-19 waves compared with previous years. 9% reported high objective social isolation but this percentage decreased during the pandemic.

The authors noted that increased interaction with family and friends using remote methods, such as video calls, instead of face-to-face meetings during the pandemic appeared to be ineffective in fully combating increased feelings of social isolation and loneliness.

Lead author Dr. Georgia Chatzi (The University of Manchester) noted that they "found that both men and women experienced an increasing prevalence of subjective social isolation and loneliness during the pandemic but only men experienced higher objective social isolation.

"All age groups had higher subjective social isolation during 2020 compared with previous years, but those aged 50-59 were most affected. Adults older than 70 experienced larger increases in objective social isolation in the second half of 2020 and those aged 50-59 and older than 80 felt the loneliest during the pandemic."

The study found that 33% of people in the poorest quintile (bottom 20%) felt isolated in the first lockdown compared to 16% of those in the richest quintile. During the second lockdown 32% of those in the least wealthy quintile reported feeling isolated compared to 19% of those in the wealthiest quintile. Before the lockdown, 27% of those in the poorest quintile felt isolated compare to 13% in the richest.

Report co-author, Professor James Nazroo (The University of Manchester) said that "it is right to be worried about levels of loneliness among older people and how these increased during lockdown, but we should also pay attention to the stark inequalities in this and consider how these inequalities might be addressed."

Professor Andrew Steptoe (UCL Behavioural Science & Health and ELSA lead) explained that "social distancing strategies were very important for older adults, who were particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. However, this may have meant that older adults found it particularly hard to maintain social connections because of lower access to and use of digital technologies, and because of the greater likelihood of needing to socially isolate in addition to social distancing."

Older adults with multiple medical issues worse affected by canceled operations

More information: ELSA: www.elsa-project.ac.uk/

Provided by University College London

Addressing links between poverty, housing, water access and affordability in Detroit

by University of Michigan

In a new study of access to clean and affordable water in Detroit, University of Michigan researchers found that about 10% of the city's population is 'triple burdened', meaning those residents face higher than average rates of poverty, housing cost burden and incomplete plumbing.

And in some Detroit neighborhoods, up to 10% of homes lack complete access to water, meaning they lack either hot and cold running water, a bathtub or shower, or a sink with a faucet, according to the study funded by U-M's Poverty Solutions initiative.

"Ensuring water access and affordability for Detroit residents is critical," said Sara Hughes, an environmental policy analyst at the School for Environment and Sustainability and lead author of the study. "Solving the water access and affordability challenge in Detroit requires engaging with the interactive consequences of an aging system, high levels of poverty and persistent housing challenges."

Hughes and other researchers at SEAS and U-M's Erb Institute analyzed census tracts and mapped the overlap between various factors that affect water affordability. They assessed ways current actions, while effective, fail to meet the scale needed for the city to link residents with clean, affordable water.

In their Poverty Solutions policy brief, the authors also propose strategies to address water security concerns in Detroit:

Expand funding for residential plumbing repairs. As the federal government considers additional drinking water investments, resources should be available for repairs as well as direct bill assistance.
Use city water data to identify target investments, reach customers with the greatest need and reduce barriers to access.
Strengthen coordination between city departments. Greater coordination between the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, Detroit Health Department, Detroit Housing and Revitalization Department and the city's Office of Sustainability could help to identify synergistic and innovative strategies to prevent future systems from disrepair.

According to Hughes and her colleagues, Detroit's median household income ($30,894) is just over half the median for statewide households ($57,144), and more than one-third of the city's residents live below the poverty line. At the same time, 41% of the city's residents face high housing costs—defined as exceeding 30% of household income—and this number is even higher for renters (53%).

On top of that, nearly half of the city's residents pay more than 3% of their income for water, a common benchmark for water affordability. Water consumption per capita is much lower than the national average, yet Detroit residents still have higher water costs.

"The pandemic highlighted how important it is from a public health perspective that people have reliable access to clean water, for hand washing and other measures that are not possible if you don't have running water or can't afford your water bill," Hughes said. "People were also losing wages, making it even tougher to keep up with water bills."

The majority of Detroit residents' homes were built before 1950, and some low-income households are in some of the city's oldest homes, according to the Poverty Solutions policy brief. These aging homes are more likely to need costly repairs that heighten the burden of high housing costs.

The report notes that although state and federal programs exist to assist with energy concerns for households, like the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, similar programs do not exist for water concerns. Funds for water and sewage assistance for Michigan residents are reserved only for emergencies and have gone widely underused by the state.

For Detroit, programs like the Great Lakes Water Authority's Water Residential Assistance Program assist customers in low-income areas with water bills and reduction of water consumption. WRAP offers conservation audits to households exceeding 120% of the city's average water consumption, with a cap of $1,500 in repairs and maintenance costs.

However, insufficient funds have limited the number of homes WRAP has been able to assist, as well as the degree they are able to repair. The report found "nearly all (97%) of participating households needed additional plumbing repairs beyond those provided during the audit." The total number of homes WRAP assisted in 2019 was 2,047, which is about half of the total number of households that lacked complete plumbing.

The policy brief shows that existing programs, while they provide improvements, fail to meet the amount of Detroit households in need of aid to make substantial repairs.

Although plumbing repairs will not eliminate the water affordability crisis in Detroit, they are an essential step toward providing clean and accessible water, according to the report's authors.

Study shows over 1.1 million urban people in US live in homes without proper indoor plumbing

More information: Addressing the Links Between Poverty, Housing and Water Access and Affordability in Detroit: poverty.umich.edu/publications … dability-in-detroit/

Provided by University of Michigan

Rent, mortgage linked to worse health outcomes during early stages of pandemic

by Nardy Baeza Bickel, University of Michigan

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, having to make rent or mortgage payments was significantly associated with health and mental distress, according to new research from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

"Housing instability and COVID-19-related hardships have contributed to an increase in health inequities in the U.S.," said Gregory Bushman, U-M doctoral student in public health and lead author of the study. "On the other hand, stable housing may have lessened the negative health effects of some of the hardships that people have faced during the pandemic, such as job loss."

For their study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Bushman and Roshanak Mehdipanah analyzed the responses from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey Study, collected early in the pandemic between April and July 2020.

According to the survey, 22% of homeowners did not have to pay mortgages, while 46% paid mortgages and 32% rented their homes.

The researchers looked at how COVID-19-related hardships such as job loss, food insecurity and inability to pay housing-associated costs impacted survey respondents' assessments of self-rated health and mental distress.

They found that compared to those without mortgage debt, homeowners with mortgage debt and renters reported worse self-rated health and higher levels of mental distress. Additionally, they found that differences in self-rated health between these groups grew over time.

"Homeowners with mortgage debt and renters experienced job loss more and experienced mental distress and self-rated health at much higher levels compared to homeowners without mortgage and debt," said Mehdipanah, assistant professor of health behavior and health education and senior author of the study. "We know housing is a social determinant of health. We need to invest in both research and policy to develop affordable, adequate and accessible housing in cities in order to reduce health inequities."

Some of the study's findings include:

Renters were more likely to have experienced job loss (58%), food insecurity (48%) and inability to pay housing-associated costs during this period (32%) than homeowners. Renters also reported the poorest self-rated health and highest levels of mental distress.
Food insecurity and low confidence in paying rent/mortgage were associated with low self-rated health and high mental distress among both renters and homeowners.
Individuals who owned their homes without mortgage debt reported the best self-rated health and lowest levels of mental distress.

Mehdipanah said the study highlights the importance of housing as a determinant of health. In 2019, about 37 million Americans were paying more than 30% of their household income toward monthly housing costs. And an additional 17.6 million were spending more than half of their income on housing costs prior. These figures are expected to get worse since the pandemic.

"In addition, we're seeing for the first time a larger population over the age of 65 with mortgages that we had never seen before," she said. "Our study highlights how important housing is, especially at a time where the first measure or the first preventive piece was to stay at home and to wash your hands. If you don't have a house or your housing is unstable and you don't have running water to wash your hands, then you're now at higher risk for COVID-19 and an array of other different diseases and issues."

The researchers hope to continue their research on newer data to look at how existing programs and policies can reduce the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic.

Number of Australians facing housing stress doubles

More information: Gregory Bushman et al, Housing and health inequities during COVID-19: findings from the national Household Pulse Survey, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (2021). DOI: 10.1136/jech-2021-216764

Journal information: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

Provided by University of Michigan

Another byproduct of the pandemic: paranoia

by Bill Hathaway, Yale University

The COVID-19 pandemic increased our feelings of paranoia, particularly in states where wearing masks was mandated, a new Yale study has shown. That heightened paranoia was particularly acute in states where adherence to mask mandates was low, the researchers report July 27 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Increased feelings of paranoia were also associated with greater acceptance of conspiracy theories, the researchers found.

"Our psychology is massively impacted by the state of the world around us," said Phil Corlett, associate professor of psychology and senior author of the study. "From a policy standpoint, it is clear that if a government sets rules, it is important that they are enforced and people are supported for complying. Otherwise they may feel betrayed and act erratically."

Corlett and his colleagues were already studying the role uncertainty plays in the development of paranoia in individuals as the pandemic began in early 2020. In those early experiments, the Yale team measured the volatility of peoples' choices during a simple card game in which rules could suddenly change, provoking a rise in paranoia for participants. Some people literally thought the deck was stacked against them and changed their choices frequently, even when similar choices had led to beneficial outcomes previously.

"We continued to gather data through lockdown and into reopening," Corlett said. "It was one of those rare, serendipitous incidences where we were able to study what happens when the world changes rapidly and unpredictably."

The baseline data collected on paranoia revealed the psychological impact of the pandemic.

Using online surveys and the same card games, the researchers found increased levels of paranoia and choice volatility among the general population. They also investigated the effect of public health policy choices on peoples' sentiments in states where masks were mandated and those where masks were simply recommended. In their analysis they also evaluated prior research on regional differences in how strongly people feel about following rules.

Paranoia and erratic choice behavior were higher in states where masks were mandated than in those that had looser restrictions. But scores were highest in areas where adherence to the rules were the lowest and where some people felt most strongly that rules should be followed.

"Essentially people got paranoid when there was a rule and people were not following it," Corlett said.

The researchers also found that people who were more paranoid were more likely to endorse conspiracies about mask-wearing and potential vaccines, as well as the QAnon conspiracy theory, which posits, among other ideas, that the government is protecting politicians and Hollywood entertainers who are running pedophile rings across the country.

Corlett said there are many historical precedents for a rise in conspiracy theories during times of trauma, from a prevalent belief that medieval bubonic plague outbreaks were caused by Jews poisoning well water to the "9/11 Truth" movement which contended that the 2001 terror attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government.

"In times of trauma and great change, sadly, we have a tendency to blame another group," he said.

Unexpected uncertainty can breed paranoia, researchers find

More information: Praveen Suthaharan et al, Paranoia and belief updating during the COVID-19 crisis, Nature Human Behaviour (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01176-8

Journal information: Nature Human Behaviour

Provided by Yale University

Premature birth associated with 'profound reduction' in brain connections

by King's College London

Researchers from the £12 million Developing Human Connectome Project have used a novel type of medical imaging to show how different areas of a newborn baby's brain communicate with each other.

Published today in Brain, the study used magnetic resonance images (MRI) with unprecedented resolution from more than 300 healthy babies to define how healthy babies' brains are connected, then researchers could assess whether particular clinical risks affected brain development.

They found that in healthy infants born at the right time, connectivity between the brain areas controlling basic functions like sensation and movement was quite similar to that seen in the adult brain. Also, the visual system develops rapidly, probably related to the sudden richness of visual experience after birth.

Communication between parts of the brain linked with more sophisticated functions like decision-making and executive function was relatively reduced compared to adults.

One of the senior researchers Dr. Dafnis Batallé said it was found premature birth was associated with a profound reduction in connectivity between many brain regions, and with a reconfiguration of the organization of functional brain networks.

"The findings can improve clinical understanding of how a baby's brain develops and may provide a way to identify subtle alterations leading to problems later in life. Early identification of babies at an increased risk is important in order to develop potential therapeutic strategies. In the future we hope to identify infants that may benefit of targeted interventions as early as few weeks after birth in order to improve their quality of life," says Dr. Dafnis Battale.

"It is great to see that the combination of advanced image analysis tools and open datasets such as the developing Human Connectome Project can offer a new glimpse into how the brain organizes itself during development," says Professor Daniel Rueckert, Imperial College London.

The Developing Human Connectome Project is led by King's College London in collaboration with Oxford University and Imperial College and funded by the European Research Council.

It is providing high resolution magnetic resonance brain images from around 1000 unborn and newborn babies to scientists worldwide to support a large number of world-leading research projects into brain development and cerebral or mental health disorders.

800 newborn brain scans made available to help clarify how some diseases develop

More information: Michael Eyre et al, The Developing Human Connectome Project: typical and disrupted perinatal functional connectivity, Brain (2021). DOI: 10.1093/brain/awab118

Journal information: Brain

Provided by King's College London

Epicureanism

Eating for hunger or pleasure? Regulating these feeding behaviors involves different brain circuits

by Baylor College of Medicine

Many times we eat, not because we are hungry, but because of social pressures or because the food is so appetizing, that, even though we are full, we just want another bite.

Overeating, whether it is guided by hunger or pleasure, typically leads to obesity, which affects about 42% of the adults in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Looking to contribute to the development of effective treatments for obesity, an international team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine investigated in an animal model how the brain regulates feeding triggered by hunger or other factors.

Led by Dr. Yong Xu, professor of pediatrics—nutrition and molecular and cellular biology at Baylor, the team discovered that although the brain regulates both types of feeding behavior through serotonin-producing neurons in the midbrain, each type of feeding is wired by its own independent circuit that does not influence the other type of feeding. The researchers also identified two serotonin receptors and two ion channels that can affect the feeding behaviors, opening the possibility that modulating their activities might help regulate overeating. The study appears in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Mapping the roads that control feeding behavior in the brain

Xu and his colleagues identified two distinct brain circuits formed by serotonin-producing neurons in the midbrain. One of the circuits extends to the hypothalamus, while the other projects into another region of the midbrain. These circuits play very distinct roles in regulating feeding.

"We discovered that the circuit that projects to the hypothalamus primarily regulates hunger-driven feeding, but does not influence the non-hunger driven feeding behavior," Xu said. "The other circuit that projects into the midbrain regulates primarily the non-hunger driven feeding, but not the feeding behavior triggered by hunger. This indicates that, at the circuit level, the brain wires the two types of feeding behavior differently."

The other significant contribution of this work refers to the identification of potential molecular targets associated with the circuits that could be used to treat overeating.

"One potential target is serotonin receptors, which are molecules that mediate the functions of the neurotransmitter serotonin produced by the neurons," Xu explained. "We found that two receptors, serotonin 2C receptor and serotonin 1B receptor, are involved in both types of feeding behavior. Our data suggests that combining compounds directed at both receptors might produce a synergistic benefit by suppressing feeding."

In addition, the team identified ion channels associated with the circuits that also might offer an opportunity to regulate the feeding behaviors. "One is the GABA A receptor, a chloride channel, found to be important in regulating serotonin circuits during hunger-driven feeding, but not during non-hunger driven feeding," Xu said.

The other is a potassium channel that influences feeding triggered by hunger-independent cues, but not hunger-driven feeding. "There is a clear segregation of these two ion channels," Xu said. "They have distinct functions in feeding behavior, which suggests they also could be target candidates to regulate overeating."

The findings have encouraged the researchers to conduct future studies to identify more molecules that could modulate the activity of the ion channels to produce anti-overeating effects in animal models. "We also want to explore how external factors related to nutrition might affect ion channel functions at the molecular level," Xu said.

This brain circuit signals when to stop eating; could regulating it help with obesity

More information: Yanlin He et al, 5-HT recruits distinct neurocircuits to inhibit hunger-driven and non-hunger-driven feeding, Molecular Psychiatry (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-021-01220-z

Journal information: Molecular Psychiatry

Provided by Baylor College of Medicine

Founding Father' of lithium-ion batteries helps solve 40-year problem with his invention

by Paul Boisvert, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

In the late 1970s, M. Stanley Whittingham was the first to describe the concept of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, an achievement for which he would share the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Yet even he couldn't have anticipated the complex materials science challenges that would arise as these batteries came to power the world's portable electronics.

One persistent technical problem is that every time a new lithium-ion battery is installed in a device, up to about one-fifth of its energy capacity is lost before the device can be recharged the very first time. That's true whether the battery is installed in a laptop, camera, wristwatch, or even in a new electric vehicle.

The cause is impurities that form on the nickel-rich cathodes—the positive (+) side of a battery through which its stored energy is discharged.

To find a way of retaining the lost capacity, Whittingham led a group of researchers that included his colleagues from the State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY Binghamton) and scientists at the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Brookhaven (BNL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL). The team used x-rays and neutrons to test whether treating a leading cathode material—a layered nickel-manganese-cobalt material called NMC 811—with a lithium-free niobium oxide would lead to a longer lasting battery.

The results of the study, "What is the Role of Nb in Nickel-Rich Layered Oxide Cathodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries?" appear in ACS Energy Letters.

"We tested NMC 811 on a layered oxide cathode material after predicting the lithium-free niobium oxide would form a nanosized lithium niobium oxide coating on the surface that would conduct lithium ions and allow them to penetrate into the cathode material," said Whittingham, now a SUNY distinguished professor and director of the Northeast Center for Chemical Energy Storage (NECCES), a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center led by SUNY Binghamton.

Lithium batteries have cathodes made of alternating layers of lithium and nickel-rich oxide materials (chemical compounds containing at least one oxygen atom), because nickel is relatively inexpensive and helps deliver higher energy density and greater storage capacity at a lower cost than other metals.

But the nickel in cathodes is relatively unstable and therefore reacts easily with other elements, leaving the cathode surface covered in undesirable impurities that reduce the battery's storage capacity by 10-18% during its first charge-discharge cycle. Nickel can also cause instability in the interior of the cathode structure, which further reduces storage capacity over extended periods of charging and discharging.

To understand how the niobium affects nickel-rich cathode materials, the scientists performed neutron powder diffraction studies at the VULCAN engineering materials diffractometer at ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). They measured the neutron diffraction patterns of pure NMC 811 and niobium-modified samples.

"Neutrons easily penetrated the cathode material to reveal where the niobium and lithium atoms were located, which provided a better understanding of how the niobium modification process works," said Hui Zhou, battery facility manager at NECCES. "The neutron scattering data suggests the niobium atoms stabilize the surface to reduce first-cycle loss, while at higher temperatures the niobium atoms displace some of the manganese atoms deeper inside the cathode material to improve long-term capacity retention."

The results of the experiment showed a reduction in first-cycle capacity loss and an improved long-term capacity retention of greater than 93 percent over 250 charge-discharge cycles.

"The improvements seen in electrochemical performance and structural stability make niobium-modified NMC 811 a candidate as a cathode material for use in higher energy density applications, such as electric vehicles," said Whittingham. "Combining a niobium coating with the substitution of niobium atoms for manganese atoms may be a better way to increase both initial capacity and long-term capacity retention. These modifications can be easily scaled-up using the present multi-step manufacturing processes for NMC materials."

Whittingham added that the research supports the objectives of the Battery500 Consortium, a multi-institution program led by the DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The program is working to develop next-generation lithium-metal battery cells delivering up to 500-watt hours per kilogram versus the current average of about 220-watt hours per kilogram.

New class of cobalt-free cathodes could enhance energy density of next-gen lithium-ion batteries

More information: Fengxia Xin et al, What is the Role of Nb in Nickel-Rich Layered Oxide Cathodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries? ACS Energy Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.1c00190

Provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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