Posted on 12/23/2021 10:45:25 AM PST by Red Badger
Scientists have taken aim at inactive clumps of lithium that build up over a battery's lifetime and shown how they can be brought back to life to boost the performance of the device. They say this can be achieved simply through tweaks to the charging process, and the approach mightn't just benefit the batteries of today, but unlock next-gen battery designs with far greater densities.
The breakthrough comes from a team of scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, who were focused on what they call islands of inactive lithium. These form as batteries are cycled and the lithium ions travel back and forth between the two electrodes, with some failing in that journey and becoming electrochemically inactive, forming clumps that contribute to the decline in storage capacity over the device's lifetime, and possibly even worse outcomes.
“I always thought of isolated lithium as bad, since it causes batteries to decay and even catch on fire,” says Yi Cui, a professor at Stanford who led the research. “But we have discovered how to electrically reconnect this ‘dead’ lithium with the negative electrode to reactivate it.”
This discovery stems from Cui's suspicions that targeting the isolated islands of lithium with a voltage could shake them into action, and cause them to physically move between the electrodes. To test this theory, the scientists built an "optical" test battery designed to allow for real-time observations of the isolated lithium islands as the device was charged.
This experiment showed that the lithium island wasn't actually "dead," but would respond to the battery operations by slowly creeping toward one electrode during charging, and slowly creeping towards the other during discharging.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
They discovered if you soak the dead battery in gasoline and light it, you can get a little more life out of it.
This is a good thing. We haven’t got that much lithium in the world, and shortages are hurting us.
Can they recycle the “dead” lithium in devices/old batteries no longer in use?
I think a ton of devices are discarded every year.
Yes, it is recyclable..................
I saw a guy once that claimed you could revive dead rechargeables (I think it was NiMH at that time rather than LiIon) by applying higher than rated voltage in the normal polarity as if charging. Supposedly you could reverse degradation in the battery by doing this briefly.
clumps of lithium = lithium cancer
Yes, I remember that.
May he rest in peace.........................
Free beer tomorrow.
Hmmm, gives me an idea. If higher than normal DC voltage can reversed diminished capacity in batteries, maybe Brandon should check it out!
I saw something on youtube about that. They said the battery pixies clumped together and formed crystal matrices and went to sleep. Goosing the battery with a slightly higher (voltage or amperage?) would wake those lazy pixies up and inspire them to go back to work.
I think he wired two similar batteries in series to get sufficient voltage (or parallel for amperage.) He didn't use a light socket.
However: if anybody tries this and dies, don't come running to me. I am not advising anybody try this at home. Whatever you do with your battery you do at your own peril. I strongly counsel you to seek a properly trained, licensed professional--or else talk your brother-in-law into doing it for you.
Break the case and expose it to the atmosphere and you get a lot of energy too.
Battery could also assplode too.
“Hey y’all! Watch this!”
clumps of lithium = lithium cancer
If it’s just a clump of lithium, then it really isn’t lithium at all and should be aborted. /sarc
Not very likely, I don’t think. He was talking about like 20V into a 12V battery (normal polarity) for a short period. I wouldn’t think that should blow anything up, especially if current limited.
Bkmk
Bkmk
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