In collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories and with support from the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity, Profs. Robert Kee, Huayang Zhu, and Jason Porter are studying advanced Na-based batteries for grid-scale energy storage. An important objective is to develop large batteries based upon low-cost, earth-prevalent, materials. In all cases, the anode is liquid sodium, but with alternative concepts being investigated for the cathodes. The separator is based upon NaSICON, which is a glassy ceramic Na-ion conductor that is developed at Ceramatec and CoorsTek. Profs. Kee and Zhu are developing computational models, especially concentrating on metal-halide cathode chemistry. Prof. Porter is developing experimental diagnostic techniques to study the spectroscopy of room-temperature ionic liquids (RTIL). The RTIL research is collaborative with Boulder Ionics, LLC, which has developed unique technology for low-cost manufacturing.