.....THANK YOU!...................
Posted on 12/28/2021 7:06:53 AM PST by Red Badger
With lithium-ion batteries serving as the engine room for so much of the modern world, from phones and laptops, to electric cars and planes, every scientific breakthrough that improves their performance is an important one. Some of these come from incremental advances that experiment with alternative materials, for example, while some come from re-imagining the whole device and the way they work from the ground up. 2021 produced a stellar crop of discoveries that resulted from researchers thinking outside the box in this way. Let's take a look at the most creative and interesting examples.
Opening up to faster charging
One of the ways scientists hope to improve the charging rates of batteries is by using porous structures for the anode, one of its two electrodes. This offers a greater contact area with the liquid electrolyte that transports lithium ions and enables them to diffuse more easily through the material, potentially making for batteries that charge much, much faster.
In November, we looked at a promising new take on this technology, with scientists at the University of Twente fashioning an anode out of a material called nickel niobate. This featured an "open and regular" crystal structure with identical, repeating channels, making it ideal for ion transport.
This was worked into a full battery cell, with the scientists finding it offered ultra-fast charging rates, 10 times faster than today's lithium-ion batteries. This was a marked improvement on the porous materials proposed so far in this area, which feature disorganized and random channels that cause the structures to cave in during charging and the battery to fail. As a sweetener, the researchers point out that nickel niobate has a higher volumetric density than the graphite used for today's anodes, which could also lead to commercial batteries that are lighter and more compact.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
Who controls those minerals?
I just bought 8kw of LiFePO4 batteries and have been testing them to see how rapidly I can charge them without raising their cell temperature too high. I paralleled three variable supplies and tested them all the way to 160amps but they became quite hot at the higher currents.
The holy grail would be a breakthrough in super-capacitor design. If we could replace EV batteries with capacitors you could charge them in moments.... but the inrush current levels would be astronomical. We don’t have a grid strong enough for that yet.
Linears or switchers?..................
I wonder how that is going.
Switchers, I do have an old variable linear supply that is capable but I rarely haul that out these days...it weighs a lot with that huge old transformer it has.
Take a look at the stock price for PLUG - click on MAX to see how much money you would have lost.
Plug Power Inc. is an American company engaged in the development of hydrogen fuel cell systems that replace conventional batteries in equipment and vehicles powered by electricity. The company is headquartered in Latham, New York, and has facilities in Spokane, Washington, and Rochester, New York.
“engine room”; “stellar crop”?!
Who writes this garbage, and who edits it?
It would make a nice heater in the garage...................
Actually a pretty interesting article. While much of this research is being conducted in the U.S. one has to wonder how much intellectual property might be being transferred to ‘another country.’ One of the lead researchers is a Harvard material scientist named Xin Li. Of course I shouldn’t just to such a conclusion when we know several American scientists has sold out their country for pocket change.
A lot of good ideas, but all of them are ones that will slightly boost performance by five or ten percent.
It would be a new industrial revolution if someone could come up with a battery that is 10x our current ones.
Thank you for those articles. You are a full-service educator! You do manage to stir up the best technical articles on a continuous basis.
That old linear supply has a transformer that was custom made by Peter Dahl, K0BIT/SK in El Paso.
“The holy grail would be a breakthrough in super-capacitor design”
Short one of those and it’s a bomb.
.....THANK YOU!...................
I make custom transformers as well.
But they are for RF! and about the size of your little finger’s nail............
Short one of those and it’s a bomb.
We have managed to live with gasoline, propane, and LNG.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.