Posted on 10/06/2022 1:18:00 PM PDT by Red Badger
An electrode was manufactured by coating an ion conductive layer composed of polyethyleneimine polymer, silver, lithium salt, and carbon black on the surface of a copper current collector. The ion conductive substrate fabricated this way can operate the battery by effectively receiving and releasing lithium ions during charging and discharging. Credit: POSTECH
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The number of newly registered electric vehicles (EVs) in Korea surpassed 100,000 units last year alone. Norway is the only other country to match such numbers. The core materials that determine the battery life and charging speed of now commonly seen EVs are anode materials. Korea's domestic battery industry has been committed to finding revolutionary ways to increase the battery capacity by introducing new technologies or other anode materials. But what if we get rid of anode materials altogether?
A POSTECH research team led by Professor Soojin Park and Ph.D. candidate Sungjin Cho (Department of Chemistry) in collaboration with Professor Dong-Hwa Seo and Dr. Dong Yeon Kim (School of Energy and Chemical Engineering) at Ulsan Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) have developed anode-free lithium batteries with performance of long battery life on a single charge.
The newly developed anode-free battery has a volumetric energy density of 977 Wh/L which is 40% higher than the conventional batteries (700 Wh/L). This means that the battery can run for 630 km on a single charge.
Batteries usually change the structure of anode materials as lithium ions flow to and from the electrode during repetitive charging and discharging. This is why the battery capacity decreases over time.
It was thought that if it was possible to charge and discharge only with a bare anode current collector without anode materials, the energy density—which determines the battery capacity—would increase. However, this method had a critical weakness which causes significant swelling of the anode volume and reduces the battery lifecycle. It swelled because there was no stable storage for lithium in the anode.
To overcome this issue, the research team succeeded in developing an anode-free battery in a commonly-used carbonate-based liquid electrolyte by adding an ion conductive substrate. The substrate not only forms an anode protective layer but also helps minimize the bulk expansion of the anode.
The study shows that the battery maintained high capacity of 4.2 mAh cm-2 and high current density of 2.1 mA cm-2 for a long period in the carbonate-based liquid electrolyte. It was also proven both in theory and through experiments that substrates can store lithium.
Further, what's drawing even more attention is that the team successfully demonstrated the solid- state half-cells by using Argyrodite-based sulfide-based solid electrolyte. It is anticipated that this battery will accelerate the commercialization of non-explosive batteries since it maintains high capacity for longer periods.
The study was recently published in Advanced Functional Materials.
Explore further
Reactive electrolyte additives improve lithium metal battery performance More information: Sungjin Cho et al, Highly Reversible Lithium Host Materials for High‐Energy‐Density Anode‐Free Lithium Metal Batteries, Advanced Functional Materials (2022). DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202208629 Journal information: Advanced Functional Materials Provided by Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)
What is that? About 18 inches? :)
That is just a part of the problem.
Life expectancy? Energy density is great, but it’s also like putting a 100 gallon gas tank on your car. Sure, you can drive 2,000 miles between fill-ups - but you are dragging a lot of weight along with you, aren’t you? Even if you are only driving 50 miles, you are carrying nearly 1,000 lbs. of extra weight in your vehicle, constantly.
We have made more progress in battery development in the last 20 years, than in the last 150 years; which is excellent. Lithium Sulphate looks very promising, but the Holy Grail is light weight, non-violatile, near infinite deep cycles, near indefinite storage life, cheap, fast charging and not made out of Unicorn fur.
Nice, now if they can stop them from exploding and reduce the weight by about 80%, they might have something viable!
LOL, f’n metric system.
About 394 miles.
Brought to you by the people that just shot a missile into their own golf course...
391 miles....................
😜🤦♂️🤷♂️🤦♀️🤷♀️..............................
“Nice, now if they can stop them from exploding “
Like the ones in your laptop and cellphone?
The price of electricity is rising to the point to where there’s little saving compared to gas, thus taking away any economic incentive to buy these expensive cars.
“Life expectancy? “
Present batteries are expected to last 20+ years. Tesla has been testing a battery that could last several decades.
I don’t use a laptop much, and I only grudgingly use a cell phone because my work forced me to. But it’s usually sitting on my shelf and hasn’t blowed up yet.
I get 270-ish miles in my EV even with running the A/C and driving with my lead foot. It's about 304 miles in "official" terms. This 394 miles is probably a realistic 350 miles. Not shabby. But not newsworthy.
“The price of electricity is rising to the point to where there’s little saving compared to gas,”
Where, and by how much? Electricity prices in my area have gone up very little.
Grow up.
Absolutely correct. That is just one of the market trade space variables. Tesla is making leaps and bounds of progress in manufacturing, SW development, AI, battery tech, and the new motors that they made are fascinating.
Toyota has made some huge leaps in the solid-state battery space; but it's one thing to make a dozen batteries a year in a lab, versus millions a month.
378 miles.
not sooo impressive...better tho.
What about towing a boat or camper? Generator and fuel?
Lighten up, Francis.
CC
I read an article about some California EV owner who claimed the electrical cost to power up his car now compares to the cost of gas, so I’m not sure how true that is, just going by what he was saying.
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