Science Daily May 29, 2018 In 2016 a French research team reported that by replacing cobalt with manganese more than doubles the battery capacity but performance degraded significantly. A team of researchers in the US (Northwestern University, MIT) found that the reason behind the material’s high capacity was because oxygen participates in the reaction process. They predicted that mixing chromium or vanadium with lithium-manganese-oxide will produce stable compounds that maintain the cathode’s unprecedented high capacity. They will experimentally test these theoretical compounds in the laboratory…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Category Archives: Battery technology
Better, faster, stronger: Building batteries that don’t go boom
Nanowerk May 29, 2018 Dendrites fill pre-existing microscopic flaws–grooves, pores and scratches at the interface between the lithium anode and the solid electrolyte separator increasing pressure on lithium. An international team of researchers (USA – Michigan Technological University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, India) explored how the metal reacts to pressure. They provide a statistical model that explains the conditions under which lithium undergoes an abrupt transition that further facilitates its ability to alleviate pressure. They also provide a model that directly links the mechanical behavior of lithium to the performance of the battery… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE 1 , 2 , 3
Prototype nuclear battery packs 10 times more power
Phys.org June 01, 2018 Researchers in Russia developed a nuclear battery prototype consisting of 200 diamond converters interlaid with nickel-63 and stable nickel foil layers. The amount of power generated by the converter depends on the thickness of the nickel foil and the converter itself, because both affect how many beta particles are absorbed. For maximum power density they found that the nickel-63 source should be 2 micrometers thick, and the optimal thickness of the converter based on Schottky barrier diamond diodes is around 10 micrometers… read more. The findings have prospects for medical and space industry applications. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Microwaved plastic increases lithium-sulfur battery lifespan
Science Daily May 9, 2018 Researchers at Purdue University soaked a plastic bag in sulfur-containing solvent and put it in a microwave to boost the temperature needed for transformation into low-density polyethylene promoting the sulfonation and carbonization of the plastic. It induced a higher density of pores for catching polysulfide and made it into porous sulfonated carbon (PSC) to divide the lithium and sulfur halves of a battery. When a PSC layer was utilized as an interlayer in lithium–sulfur batteries, the sulfur cathode delivered an improved capacity of 776 mAh g–1 at 0.5C and an excellent cycle retention of 79% […]
Building lithium-sulfur batteries with paper biomass
Science Daily April 2, 2018 A major byproduct in the papermaking industry is lignosulfonate, a sulfonated carbon waste material. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have demonstrated the potential of using lignosulfonate to design sustainable, low-cost electrode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries. In its elemental form, sulfur is nonconductive, but when combined with carbon at elevated temperatures, it becomes highly conductive, allowing it to be used in novel battery technologies. They have created a lithium-sulfur battery prototype that is the size of a watch battery, which can cycle about 200 times. The next step is to scale up the prototype to markedly […]
Knitting electronics with yarn batteries
Science Daily March 28, 2018 Researchers in China twisted carbon nanotube fibers into a yarn, then coated one piece of yarn with zinc to form an anode, and another with magnesium oxide to form a cathode. These two pieces were then twisted like a double helix and coated with a polyacrylamide electrolyte and encased in silicone. In tests the yarn zinc-ion battery was stable, had a high charge capacity, was rechargeable and waterproof. The material could be knitted and stretched, cut into several pieces, each of which could power a watch. In a proof-of-concept demonstration, eight pieces of the cut […]