As Canada continues transitioning toward alternative energy sources and electric vehicles, demand for better battery technology remains high.
To meet this demand, next-gen battery technology must feature higher densities, longer lifetimes, faster charging, and lower costs.
But to design for such technology requires highly accurate simulations of the materials and associated chemical reaction mechanisms.
This is where quantum computing may be able to help.
Toronto’s Xanadu Quantum Technologies and the University of Toronto have received funding to collaborate with the National Research Council of Canada on an ambitious new research project as part of the NRC’s Applied Quantum Computing Challenge program.
Quantum computing offers a potential solution to the problem of battery design by leveraging direct simulation of the underlying quantum dynamics to better capture interactions between electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom, according to a statement from the firm. The partnership between Government, private industry, and academia aims to demonstrate this theory.
Collaborators will contribute to the research through their respective expertise. For example, U of T Department of Computer Science Professor Nathan Wiebe and Professor Artur Izmaylov from the Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences will lead groups that will prioritize theoretical contributions to quantum algorithms.
“Prior work on quantum computing for batteries has focused on ground-state energy estimation,” points out Izmaylov, while “This project aims to develop breakthrough algorithms based on quantum dynamics, which are better suited for quantum computers and more challenging for classical methods.”
Dr. Juan Miguel Arrazola’s team from Xanadu, meanwhile, will place a larger focus on battery simulation application, in collaboration with the NRC’s Battery Materials Innovation team led by Dr. Abu-Lebdeh.
“We are enthusiastic about demonstrating how quantum computers can impact the discovery of next-generation batteries,” stated Arrazola, Head of Algorithms at Xanadu.
Named after an ancient Chinese city, Xanadu was founded in 2016 with a mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere.
The Canadian company has partnered with many notable organizations, including Google, NVIDIA, Toyota, Harvard University, and UBC.