Posted on 02/09/2023 1:26:06 PM PST by Red Badger
Advanced Battery Technology Breakthrough
A team of engineers has made a significant advancement toward the development of fast-charging lithium-metal batteries, according to a recent paper published in Nature Energy. These batteries are capable of charging in as little as an hour, thanks to the growth of uniform lithium metal crystals that can be rapidly seeded on a surprising surface. This innovative technology holds great promise for the future of energy storage.
In a new Nature Energy paper, engineers report progress toward lithium-metal batteries that charge fast – as fast as an hour. This fast charging is thanks to lithium metal crystals that can be seeded and grown – quickly and uniformly – on a surprising surface. The trick is to use a crystal growing surface that lithium officially doesn’t “like.” From these seed crystals grow dense layers of uniform lithium metal. Uniform layers of lithium metal are of great interest to battery researchers because they lack battery-performance-degrading spikes called dendrites. The formation of these dendrites in battery anodes is a longstanding roadblock to fast-charging ultra-energy-dense lithium-metal batteries.
This new approach, led by University of California San Diego engineers, enables charging of lithium-metal batteries in about an hour, a speed that is competitive against today’s lithium-ion batteries. The UC San Diego engineers, in collaboration with UC Irvine imaging researchers, published this advance aimed at developing fast-charging lithium-metal batteries today (February 9, 2023) in the journal Nature Energy.
Uniform Crystals of Lithium Metal
In this SEM image, large, uniform crystals of lithium metal grow on a surface that is surprising because it doesn’t “like” lithium. UC San Diego battery researchers found that lithium metal crystals can be started (nucleated) and grown, quickly and uniformly, into dense layers of lithium metal that lack performance-degrading dendrites. In a Nature Energy paper published on Feb. 9, 2023, the UC San Diego battery researchers showed that this surprise formation of lithium crystal seeds leads to dense lithium layers even at high charging rates, resulting in long-cycle-life lithium-metal batteries that can also be fast-charged. This discovery overcomes a common phenomena in rechargeable lithium-metal batteries in which high-rate charging always leads to porous lithium and short cycle lifes. By replacing the ubiquitous copper surfaces on the negative side (the anode) of lithium-metal batteries with this lithiophobic surface made of lithium fluoride and iron, the researchers have opened a new avenue for creating more reliable, safer, higher-performance lithium-metal batteries. Credit: Zhaohui Wu and Zeyu Hui / UC San Diego
To grow lithium metal crystals, the researchers replaced the ubiquitous copper surfaces on the negative side (the anode) of lithium-metal batteries with a lithiophobic nanocomposite surface made of lithium fluoride (LiF) and iron (Fe). Using this lithiophobic surface for lithium deposition, lithium crystal seeds formed, and from these seeds grew dense lithium layers – even at high charging rates. The result was long-cycle-life lithium-metal batteries that can be charged quickly.
“The special nanocomposite surface is the discovery,” said UC San Diego nanoengineering professor Ping Liu, the senior author on the new paper. “We challenged the traditional notion of what kind of surface is needed to grow lithium crystals. The prevailing wisdom is that lithium grows better on surfaces that it likes, surfaces that are lithiophilic. In this work, we show that is not always true. The substrate we use does not like lithium. However, it provides abundant nucleation sites along with fast surface lithium movement. These two factors lead to the growth of these beautiful crystals. This is a nice example of a scientific insight solving a technical problem.”
Single Crystal Lithium Metal Seeded Lithiophoboic Nanocomposite Surface
Cryo-TEM image of a single crystal of lithium metal that was seeded on a surprising, lithiophoboic nanocomposite surface made of lithium fluoride and iron. The lithium crystal has a hexagonal bipyramidal shape. In a Nature Energy paper published on Feb. 9, 2023, the UC San Diego and UC Irvine researchers showed that this surprise formation of lithium crystal seeds leads to dense lithium layers even at high charging rates, resulting in long-cycle-life lithium-metal batteries that can also be fast charged. This discovery overcomes a common phenomena in rechargeable lithium-metal batteries in which high-rate charging always leads to porous lithium and short cycle lifes. By replacing the ubiquitous copper surfaces on the negative side (the anode) of lithium-metal batteries with this lithiophobic surface made of lithium fluoride and iron, the researchers have opened a new avenue for creating more reliable, safer, higher performance lithium-metal batteries. Credit: Chunyang Wang and Huolin Xin / UC Irvine
The new advance led by UC San Diego nanoengineers could eliminate a significant roadblock that is holding back widespread use of energy-dense lithium-metal batteries for applications like electric vehicles (EVs) and portable electronics. While lithium-metal batteries hold great potential for EVs and portable electronics because of their high charge density, today’s lithium-metal batteries must be charged extremely slowly in order to maintain battery performance and avoid safety problems. The slow charging is necessary to minimize the formation of battery-performance-wrecking lithium dendrites that form as lithium ions join with electrons to form lithium crystals on the anode side of the battery. Lithium crystals build up as the battery charges, and the lithium crystals dissolve as the battery discharges.
Reference: “Growing single-crystalline seeds on lithiophobic substrates to enable fast-charging lithium-metal batteries” by Zhaohui Wu, Zeyu Hui, Haodong Liu, Shen Wang, Sicen Yu, Xing Xing, John Holoubek, Qiushi Miao Ping Liu, Chunyang Wang and Huolin L. Xin, 9 February 2023, Nature Energy. DOI: 10.1038/s41560-023-01202-1
Ping Liu is the director of the Sustainable Power and Energy Center (SPEC) at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering where he also serves as professor in the Department of NanoEngineering.
So if I wash my Tesla with Head and Shoulders I can prevent dendrites and get better battery life?
An hour is fast? Not if you’re on the road.
One should always be wary of phrases like "as little as" or "as much as". They are used constantly in misleading advertisements.
Faster fires!
The ability to charge quickly while not shortening the battery lifespan would be cool! It would be nice for cars and also the new ultralight electric airplanes like the Aerolite EV-103, they have a limited flight-time of about 30mins so a fast charge would make them more fun... I’d buy one but I have a rule, I don’t fly any plane that I outweigh.... I’m on a diet :-) see below for a short vid about this plane... standard controls, if you can fly a simple plane like a 152 then this is second-nature..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIaD71KOAdU
The biggest mistake with these electric cars is not putting the cord on the car. A receptacle on the charging station doesn’t get stolen. A power cord on the charger gets stolen.
Ask any owner of an RV if they have their own charging cord and the answer is yes!
Putting the cord on the charger was big time dumbassery!
That’s stupidity on a grand scale to overlook that mistake!
The Chinese will be happy to supply us with Lithium. In the form of completed batteries.
I use to buy hundreds of pounds of tungsten a month for a product I manufactured. It was inexpensive buying from international suppliers (Europe) and even China. After the Tsunami wiped out a bunch of tech manufacturing the Chinese clamped down on the supply and tungsten went insane. And they used their near monopoly of the supply to blackmail anyone who used it. HOWEVER... They would be HAPPY to sell it to you dirt cheap provided you had the complete product made in China, with Chinese labor.
Until crooks start opening up US mining we will always ben at the mercy of China and the crooks in DC that China owns. It is laughable that anyone thinks we will mine a single gram of rare earths and lithium with the corrupt jerks in DC and their environazi foot soldiers.
Hmmm...I fully charged my 2016 Tundra in about 3 minutes earlier today.
p
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I called the number. It’s been disconnected...
I read about battery breakthroughs every week, but it still takes hours to charge a car to 100 percent so you can go a few hundred miles. Or 95 miles if you’re driving a Ford F-150 Lightening that’s pulling a trailer.
Are we there yet?
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https://investorshub.advfn.com/Niocorp-Developments-Ltd-NIOBF-18707
“These batteries are capable of charging in as little as an hour...”
You can eat a lot of gas station sushi in an hour.
.
The 'deal' is these batteries are Lithium-Metal batteries, not Lithium-ION batteries.
Cheaper to manufacture, last longer (recharge cycles), store more energy per unit weight (denser).................
That’s the target...................
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