Posted on 02/24/2024 8:16:21 PM PST by Red Badger
A team from the University of Liverpool has developed a new solid lithium-ion conductor that could replace liquid electrolytes in batteries, enhancing safety and efficiency. This discovery, facilitated by AI and interdisciplinary collaboration, paves the way for further advancements in sustainable energy storage solutions. Image represents the lithium ions (in blue) moving through the structure. Credit: University of Liverpool
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Researchers at the University of Liverpool have identified a novel solid substance capable of swiftly conducting lithium ions.
A major challenge in the field of materials science involves developing and identifying novel materials that contribute towards achieving global objectives, including the pursuit of Net Zero.
In a paper published in the journal Science, researchers at the University of Liverpool have discovered a solid material that rapidly conducts lithium ions. Such lithium electrolytes are essential components in the rechargeable batteries that power electric vehicles and many electronic devices.
Consisting of non-toxic earth-abundant elements, the new material has high enough Li ion conductivity to replace the liquid electrolytes in current Li ion battery technology, improving safety and energy capacity.
Using a transformative scientific approach to design the material, the interdisciplinary research team from the University synthesised the material in the laboratory, determined its structure (the arrangement of the atoms in space), and demonstrated it in a battery cell.
The Role of AI and Collaborative Research
The new material is one of a very small number of solid materials that achieve Li ion conductivity high enough to replace liquid electrolytes, and operates in a new way because of its structure.
Its discovery was achieved through a collaborative computational and experimental workflow that used AI and physics-based calculations to support decisions made by chemistry experts at the University.
The new material provides a platform for the optimization of chemistry to further enhance the properties of the material itself, and to identify other materials based on the new understanding provided by the study.
Impact and Future Directions Professor Matt Rosseinsky, from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Chemistry, said: “This research demonstrates the design and discovery of a material that is both new and functional. The structure of this material changes the previous understanding of what a high-performance solid-state electrolyte looks like.
“Specifically, solids with many different environments for the mobile ions can perform very well, not just the small number of solids where there is a very narrow range of ionic environments. This dramatically opens up the chemical space available for further discoveries.
Recent reports and media coverage herald the use of AI tools to find potentially new materials. In these cases, the AI tools are working independently and thus are likely to recreate what they were trained on in various ways, generating materials that may be very similar to known ones.
“This discovery research paper shows that AI and computers marshaled by experts can tackle the complex problem of real-world materials discovery, where we seek meaningful differences in composition and structure whose impact on properties is assessed based on understanding.”
“Our disruptive design approach offers a new route to the discovery of these and other high-performance materials that rely on the fast motion of ions in solids.”
Reference:
“Superionic lithium transport via multiple coordination environments defined by two-anion packing” by Guopeng Han, Andrij Vasylenko, Luke M. Daniels, Chris M. Collins, Lucia Corti, Ruiyong Chen, Hongjun Niu, Troy D. Manning, Dmytro Antypov, Matthew S. Dyer, Jungwoo Lim, Marco Zanella, Manel Sonni, Mounib Bahri, Hongil Jo, Yun Dang, Craig M. Robertson, Frédéric Blanc, Laurence J. Hardwick, Nigel D. Browning, John B. Claridge and Matthew J. Rosseinsky, 15 February 2024, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.adh5115
The study undertaken was a combined effort between researchers in University of Liverpool’s Department of Chemistry, Materials Innovation Factory, Leverhulme Research Centre for Functional Materials Design, Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy, Albert Crewe Centre, and School of Engineering.
The work was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Leverhulme Trust, and the Faraday Institution.
My luck will continue. Lithium, we can make tons of it in our country. We have a president who forced the EV transition instead of allowing it to happen organically. He is a total idiot. He probably slowed the transition with his idiotic dictates.
Thanks for the info. Car and driver does give your model a good review. I think it is unlikely the car will provide 350 miles during harsh operating conditions..
Which country is the primary source of this “miracle mineral”...China, Russia or Afghanistan?
“facilitated by AI and interdisciplinary collaboration”
“identifying novel materials that contribute towards achieving global objectives, including the pursuit of Net Zero.”
Of course.
Another pseudo-tech article that begins with a snazzy picture.
The smart phone you likely typed your post from, the tablet you watch Netflix on and the laptop you take with to do work on remotely all have lithium ion batteries in them. The fact is none of those devices would exist without lithium ion batteries in them no other battery tech has the energy density to enable such devices. Anything th at increases the energy density and or safety of lithium ion batteries has immediate and lasting impact on every day life regardless of EVs.
My house will never be dark in a power outage again,nor can the dotgovs ever turn the power off with a few clicks of a mouse. They can do the same to the gas grid in seconds cutting the main valves off at the city gate level. They cannot turn off that giant thermonuclear reactor in the sky and it showers 220 days a year at this location my roof and back property with hundreds of thousands of watts a second. My system intercepts and converts 15,000 of those into electricity and then either power the house, pushes the grid meter backwards for a profit or charges a Powerwall in the garage that I am demoing for a colleague and their company. Basically torture testing it to see how it holds up to cycle life and fast discharges it’s 30kWh net capacity from 80/20 DOD and I have cycled it at 1.5C rates the limit of what the inverters will output not the panel with is a 300amp service line. That powerwall will also benefit from solid state batteries it would drop the levelized cost of storage (LCOS) which is always a good thing economically. If I decided to buy a powerwall from my friends company it won’t be for purely economics it will be a prepper expense that also benefits the energy budget in peak demand times. If you can buy a kWh at 4cents or less off peak and sell it back at 80+ cents on peak and it costs you 20cents to store it LCOS that’s a net profit win there. Based on the current cycle life expectation of these second lper cells the LCOS is around 18 cents kWh. It’s irrelevant from a prepper stance as any kWh is priceless in a blackout being able to take solar output and use it at night w/o the grid is worth every penny spent on that ability if you can afford that penny.
Point is even when the sun is down and the grid is down I have 30,000 watt hours of power to use at my hearts desire. It’s a freedom thing something that surprises me how much the older luddites poo poo home solar and then say I’m independent kinda person all chest out. Uh no you are not if you genrac needs the gas grid you are a slave to the gas grid. Full disclosure I also have a 15,000 watt trifuel commercial rated generator that is hooked to the gas grid. Why because NG is one third the price of propane and the last blackout the gas grid stayed up barely still the febs at a whim could click click and bring down the gas grid in a few seconds, the remaining pressure in the mains would give a few minutes at most of gas then poof.
The sun will rise in the east tomorrow and every other day for at least a billion more years and short of some evil billionaire putting up a solarsail at L1 you simply cannot turn off El Sol.
The sun may rise in the east, but here at 47°45′45″N it only gets to 24° high on December 21. The panels are often snow covered. They are often blocked by trees. Then there is the cloud cover from October to June.
Nope, nope, nope and nope. They keep trying to sell it here, but there are very few takers.
“where is the electricity to charge these wondrous new batteries going to come from?”
Mine comes from my roof I could charge enough kWh on a typical sunny Texas day for a small fleet of cars. My panels made 55 kWh today net. A model 3 tesla in city traffic uses 180wh to go a mile with the A.C. Blasting or less I have personally seen 130wh in bumper to bumper Houston grid lock. I rent model S or 3 fairly often as they are the cheapest fullsized sedans from hertz Corp rates. Too bad they are selling them off for people who are competent enough to know how to use an EV they are great for city cars. Using the higher 180wh/mi that’s 306miles of distance in a single day. No one drives 300 miles per day commute. The average is 40 miles round trip. So my panels could have “fueled” no less than 7 tesla model 3 EVs each with a 40 mile per day commute.
It was 11hr and 23min of daylight today and 94F in the shade.Every day from now till Dec 21st is longer than today was.
You also demonstrated why I will never live in the North. Short days long cold winter night no thanks y’all can keep that noise. I’ll take 105F all day by the lake drinking a cold one with twinpeaks girls on the boat.
William Carrier should be given sainthood we rock the A.C. At 70 or less in summer those panels are making 80+ kWh per day it was 94 today unseasonably warm it’s 67F inside my bedroom as I type this. I used 42kWh so far today from midnight. my panels made 55kWh today with the last 1000 watts still flowing out of them 30min before sundown. I know people in the PacNW who not only have panels they have solar thermal system for hot water so they do work just not at the level they would in the sunny South.
My mom’s brother settled in Ft. Worth after WW II and we visited them every couple of years. All I remember is cricket invasions where they were two inches deep on the hotel parking lot and unbearable heat and prickly skin.
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