Posted on 05/15/2023 11:15:27 AM PDT by Red Badger
Oxygen Ion Battery - A prototype of the battery at TU Wien. Credit: TU Wien
Researchers at TU Wien (Vienna) have developed a groundbreaking oxygen-ion battery, which boasts exceptional durability, eliminates the need for rare elements, and solves the problem of fire hazards.
Lithium-ion batteries, while commonplace in today’s world – powering everything from electric vehicles to smartphones – aren’t necessarily the optimal solution for all applications. Researchers at TU Wien have made a breakthrough by creating an oxygen-ion battery that offers several significant advantages. While it may not match the energy density of lithium-ion batteries, its storage capacity doesn’t diminish irreversibly over time, making it capable of an exceptionally long lifespan as it can be regenerated.
Moreover, the fabrication of oxygen-ion batteries doesn’t require scarce elements and involves non-combustible materials. The innovative battery concept has already led to a patent application, filed in collaboration with partners in Spain. These oxygen-ion batteries could provide an outstanding solution for large-scale energy storage systems, such as those required to hold electrical energy from renewable sources.
Ceramic materials as a new solution
“We have had a lot of experience with ceramic materials that can be used for fuel cells for quite some time,” says Alexander Schmid from the Institute for Chemical Technologies and Analytics at TU Wien. “That gave us the idea of investigating whether such materials might also be suitable for making a battery.”
The ceramic materials that the TU Wien team studied can absorb and release doubly negatively charged oxygen ions. When an electric voltage is applied, the oxygen ions migrate from one ceramic material to another, after which they can be made to migrate back again, thus generating electric current. 
Prof. Jürgen Fleig, Tobias Huber, and Alexander Schmid (left to right). Credit: TU Wien
“The basic principle is actually very similar to the lithium-ion battery,” says Prof. Jürgen Fleig. “But our materials have some important advantages.” Ceramics are not flammable – so fire accidents, which occur time and again with lithium-ion batteries, are practically ruled out. In addition, there is no need for rare elements, which are expensive or can only be extracted in an environmentally harmful way.
“In this respect, the use of ceramic materials is a great advantage because they can be adapted very well,” says Tobias Huber. “You can replace certain elements that are difficult to obtain with others relatively easily.” The prototype of the battery still uses lanthanum – an element that is not exactly rare but not completely common either. But even lanthanum is to be replaced by something cheaper, and research into this is already underway. Cobalt or nickel, which are used in many batteries, are not used at all.
High life span
But perhaps the most important advantage of the new battery technology is its potential longevity: “In many batteries, you have the problem that at some point the charge carriers can no longer move,” says Alexander Schmid. “Then they can no longer be used to generate electricity, the capacity of the battery decreases. After many charging cycles, that can become a serious problem.”
The oxygen-ion battery, however, can be regenerated without any problems: If oxygen is lost due to side reactions, then the loss can simply be compensated for by oxygen from the ambient air.
The new battery concept is not intended for smartphones or electric cars, because the oxygen-ion battery only achieves about a third of the energy density that one is used to from lithium-ion batteries and runs at temperatures between 200 and 400 °C. The technology is, however, extremely interesting for storing energy.
“If you need a large energy storage unit to temporarily store solar or wind energy, for example, the oxygen-ion battery could be an excellent solution,” says Alexander Schmid. “If you construct an entire building full of energy storage modules, the lower energy density and increased operating temperature do not play a decisive role. But the strengths of our battery would be particularly important there: the long service life, the possibility of producing large quantities of these materials without rare elements, and the fact that there is no fire hazard with these batteries.”
Reference: “Rechargeable Oxide Ion Batteries Based on Mixed Conducting Oxide Electrodes” by Alexander Schmid, Martin Krammer and Jürgen Fleig, 25 January 2023, Advanced Energy Materials. DOI: 10.1002/aenm.202203789
A place where I used to work many years ago, a retired engineer was given space next to our calibration lab to work on an invention, since he was friends of the owner and was possibly a investor.
I would talk to him from time to time to see what he was doing and he told me he was working on a ‘fuel deliver system’ for engines that would revolutionize air and land travel, and get huge energy savings and reduce pollution.
Basically what he was working on was a pre-heater for fuels, gasoline, diesel or kerosene jet fuel, that would heat the fuel to a very high temperature AND AT A VERY HIGH PRESSURE to be injected directly into the cylinders or the jet’s combustion chambers.
While this idea is not new, he had some special materials he was working with that would make it practical for everyday use in cars and trucks.
I would help him from time to time if he needed some muscle putting together some of his experimental apparatus and told him when he was ready to fire it up to let me know so I could evacuate the area! He just laughed and said okay.
Unfortunately he passed away before that day came................................
thats 400 F to 750 F
“The new battery concept is not intended for smartphones or electric cars....”
Does this mean the Oxygen Ion Battery is not the new magic battery that is going to replace Edison’s batter?
Sh*t Damn Hell Poop
Sniffer has money to waste on green energy.
Bkmk
Meh.
Call me when I can buy a genuine Shipstone storage device.
Consider this:
What would you charge utilities per kwh to capture & store energy to facilitate their federally mandated requirements?
I'm seeing dollar signs. Big time. Which means incredibly higher electricity prices in both the near & long term.
That scum George Soros might have gotten out of Tesla too soon... and TAKE THAT BIDEN AND YOUR CHINESE BENEFACTORS...NO MORE BEING DEPENDENT ON CHINA FOR RARE EARTH ELEMENTS...
Does that mean it has to be heated TO 200-400C to operate, or that it heats up to 200-400C when operating? If the latter is the case the excess heat can be used to generate steam to drive a turbine generator, to partly recharge itself or run other applications.
“Does that mean it has to be heated TO 200-400C to operate, or that it heats up to 200-400C when operating? If the latter is the case the excess heat can be used to generate steam to drive a turbine generator, to partly recharge itself or run other applications.”
It needs to be at that temp to work, according to the paper referenced in the article.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aenm.202203789
It works by diffusion of oxygen ions into and out of lattice vacancies in ceramic materials (plates) of different chemistry. No doubt this diffusion is negligible at room temp.
So it needs to be heated to that high temp to function. No doubt it will also generate heat in use, charging, discharging, and just sitting there. So yes, any heat flow from the battery necessary to keep it at a suitable operating temperature could, in part, be converted to useful work.
So it is basically just for large energy storage applications.
If it’s really that good, the anti-electricity woo-woos will find a pretext to ban it.
So the battery bank may use more power to maintain the 395-755 deg F. temperature than the power it stores?? Scale it up baby!! Energy density per volume/weight is key in my thinking, and the temp thing plus “... the oxygen-ion battery only achieves about a third of the energy density that one is used to from lithium-ion batteries” sounds like a “tech-killer” to me. We’ll see I guess.
The target market here is utility scale energy storage to back up the intermittent utility scale power sources, not mobile electric power. I don’t think it would take significant power to keep it warm. Thats why elephants dont have fur: the internal metabolic heat released goes as the cube of the animal’s length, and the surface area goes as the square. As you say, scale it up. And/Or put it in a deep mine.
I doubt the technology will go anywhere. If the left’s green new “leap and a net will appear” energy plan continues, the “scientific consensus” will suddenly call nuclear powerplants green. ( Oceania has always been with Eastasia.) Windmills and solar panels are not economic even if we had utility scale energy storage.
Also, the ceramics used in the proof of concept required lots of rare elements, the authors leave solving that as an exercise to the reader. So this is the realm of SciFi. It won’t pay off within the 20 years a US Patent lasts.
Seems we hear of a new battery breakthrough every two months from somewhere, and never again from them
FTA: The new battery concept is not intended for smartphones or electric cars, because the oxygen-ion battery only achieves about a third of the energy density that one is used to from lithium-ion batteries
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4 gallons of gas has more energy then the entire battery pack of the electric Ford F-150
This new battery is a step backward as far as energy storage.
What you are seeing is a forced economy one would expect from a tyranny. I don’t disagree our current “elites” will mis-use and intentionally force the use of bad technology for personal gain or control.
That however does not make the actual tech practical, it makes it a socio-economic weapon, nothing more. Again as a practical solution for energy needs it really has none at this time.
Just like those miracle carburetors of the 70’s.................
That’s my point:
It’s need is purely emotional, rooted in government mandates.
Agreed.
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