Powering the future: UW-Milwaukee professors' innovation has potential to take battery technology to the next level

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – Everywhere you look, our world is battery-powered. From cell phones to lawn mowers and electric cars, lithium-ion batteries have become vital to the technology of the future and across the world the challenge remains to make them safer, faster charging and longer lasting. 

Enter Drs. Carol Hirschmugl and Marija Gajdardziska, a pair of UW-Milwaukee professors recently recognized as one of four Wisconsin innovation award winners. The two created a material that dramatically boosts the energy storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries, allowing quicker charging, longer life and lower cost.

Now, their startup SafeLi LLC, has just won a grant from the Department of Energy to partner with Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago to help bring their material to market.

On CBS 58 Sunday Morning, Michael Schlesinger explained they're on the cutting edge of current events.