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Batteries

Improved Batteries for Large-Scale Energy Storage

25.08.2021

Molten sodium sulphur batteries were originally designed by the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s and later sold to the Japanese spark plug manufacturer NGK. Apart from automotive applications, the batteries also have a long history of being used as energy storage media for renewable sources including solar and wind energy. Sodium sulphur batteries operate under high temperatures reaching up to 300°C and use a solid electrolyte. One...

Lithium Statistics 2020

10.08.2021

Statistical indicators of lithium production and reserves are of undoubted interest, primarily due to the increased demand for lithium in the automotive industry. According to the latest USGS edition for 2020, more than 70% of global lithium consumption is associated with the manufacturing of batteries. However, the slowdown of the global economy due to the coronavirus pandemic has had a negative impact on this industrial sector as...

Improving the performance of lithium-metal batteries

09.08.2021

Constructing a reliable lithium-metal battery has long been a major interest of scientists around the world, as it is safe to assume that one day they may play an important role in next-generation battery technology. Lithium-metal batteries have a higher energy capacity than lithium-ion batteries and could potentially last longer and weigh less. However, a major problem concerning lithium-metal batteries is the low Coulombic...

New battery design to revolutionise battery storage

21.07.2021

In the future of our industrialised world, electricity demand is projected to increase more than tenfold within the next 10 years. This means that society is going to need better battery storage systems with a larger storage capacity. By far the greatest concern in this matter is that the supply of the main raw materials, cobalt and nickel, will not suffice to satisfy future demands. Now (2021), scientists at Berkeley Lab have...

Structural Battery for massless energy storage

03.04.2021

Structural batteries are energy storage systems with the additional feature of being able to bear weight. They are often employed in applications used for transport, such as electric vehicles or drones. There are two types of structural batteries: embedded batteries and laminated structural electrodes. One of the greatest challengesof this type of battery is that so far science has failed to produce structures which have good...

New Battery Anode using Lithium Rocksalt

18.03.2021

Modern life, to a large extent, relies on applications powered by lithium-ion batteries. By 2030 the number of electric vehicles is expected to increase drastically. And then there is also green electricity from wind turbines and solar panels which need large batteries that can store electricity for when it is needed and smooth out peaks and troughs in demand. There may come a point where lithium becomes too scarce or expensive to be...

Lead to Improve Performance of Lithium-ion Batteries

25.02.2021

Lithium-ion batteries are an advanced battery technology that uses lithium ions as a key component of its electrochemistry. During a discharge cycle, lithium atoms in the anode are ionised and separated from their electrons. The lithium ions move from the anode and pass through the electrolyte until they reach the cathode, where they recombine with their electrons and electrically neutralise. The lithium ions are small enough to be...

Fluorescence Molecule for Flow Batteries

12.02.2021

Grid-connected energy storing systems will play an increasingly important role in the near future, as intermittent renewable energy sources are expanding and the demand for improved power quality and energy management is rising. One of the most promising technologies in this respect is electrochemical storage systems because they are flexible, efficient, and scalable. Among them redox flow batteries have high potential and many...

AI to improve battery components

23.09.2020

Redox flow batteries are electrochemical energy storage devices which can transform chemical energy into electrical energy through reversible oxidation and reduction of working fluids. Due to the flexibility in its system design, redox flow batteries are promising media in stationary storage of energy from sources such as solar and wind. They can also provide high functionality at low cost, with little harm to the environment. To...

New Battery Technology Could Improve Range of Aircraft and Electric Cars

20.07.2020

In the search for a vehicle battery able to extend the driving range of electric vehicles scientists have tried to exchange the currently-used graphite anodes with lithium metal anodes. Lithium can extend an EV’s driving range by 30–50%, but also shortens the battery’s useful life. This is due to dendrites and their needle-like projections called whiskers that can grow inside a lithium battery and impair its proper functioning because...