Future Timeline

Giga Texas made their 20 millionth 4680 cell. This comes just 4 months after Tesla built its 10 millionth 4680 cell at Giga Texas.

University of Maryland researchers studying how lithium batteries fail have developed a new technology that could enable next-generation electric vehicles (EVs) and other devices that are less prone to battery fires while increasing energy storage.

The innovative method, presented in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suppresses the growth of lithium dendrites—damaging branch-like structures that develop inside so-called all-solid-state lithium batteries, preventing firms from broadly commercializing the promising technology. But this new design for a battery "interlayer," led by Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Professor Chunsheng Wang, stops dendrite formation and could open the door for production of viable all-solid-state batteries for EVs.

At least 750,000 registered EVs in the U.S. run on lithium-ion batteries—popular because of their high energy storage but containing a flammable liquid electrolyte component that burns when overheated. While no government agency tracks vehicle fires by type of car, and electric car battery fires appear to be relatively rare, they pose particular risks; the National Transportation Safety Board reports that first responders are vulnerable to safety risks, including electric shock and the exposure to toxic gases emanating from damaged or burning batteries.

All-solid-state batteries could lead to cars that are safer than current electric or internal combustion models, but creating a strategy to bypass the drawbacks was laborious, Wang said. When these batteries are operated at the high capacities and charging-discharging rates that electric vehicles demand, lithium dendrites grow toward the cathode side, causing short circuits and a decay in capacity.

(Eurekalert) Genoa/Milan (Italy), 24 October 2023 – From the research lab to TIME’s 2023 list of Best Innovations, IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) makes a hit with the first ever-made rechargeable edible battery. The battery has been selected by TIME among the most impactful innovations of the year that are changing how we live, being listed as one of the special mention inventions. This is the first time for a prototype stemming from a research center based in Italy to be acknowledged in TIME’s prestigious list.

In March 2023 the research paper “An Edible Rechargeable Battery” was published by Mario Caironi’s group on the international journal Advanced Materials describing the proof-of-concept battery cell obtained by using materials that are normally consumed as part of our daily diet, such as almonds, capers, and algae. The news was covered by newspapers and magazines worldwide, impressed by the originality of the research result. IIT press office counted more than 250 news articles in 2 months appearing in Italy, UK, USA, France, Spain, Brazil, Germany, Israel, Argentina, and many other countries.

TIME editors also noticed it. Amidst hundreds of other products and proposals, after an evaluation based “on a number of key factors, including originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact”, TIME has decided to acknowledge the first ever-made rechargeable edible battery made at IIT among the 200 most impactful innovations of 2023 that are changing how we live, as a special mention invention.
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Networked intelligent devices and sensors can improve the energy efficiency of consumer products and buildings by monitoring their consumption in real time. Miniature devices like these being developed under the concept of the Internet of Things require energy sources that are as compact as possible in order to function autonomously.

Monolithically integrated batteries that simultaneously generate, convert, and store energy in a single system could be used for this purpose.

A team of scientists at the University of Freiburg's Cluster of Excellence Living, Adaptive, and Energy-Autonomous Materials Systems (livMatS) has developed a monolithically integrated photo battery consisting of an organic polymer-based battery and a multi-junction organic solar cell.

The battery, presented by Rodrigo Delgado Andrés and Dr. Uli Würfel, University Freiburg, and Robin Wessling and Prof. Dr. Birgit Esser, University of Ulm, is the first monolithically integrated photo battery made of organic materials to achieve a discharge potential of 3.6 volts. It is thus among the first systems of this kind capable of powering miniature devices. The team published their results in the journal Energy & Environmental Science.

(Wiley Online Library) Formic acid, which can be produced electrochemically from carbon dioxide, is a promising energy carrier. A Chinese research team have now developed a fast-charging hybrid battery system that combines the electrochemical generation of formic acid as an energy carrier with a microbial fuel cell. As the team demonstrate in the journal Angewandte Chemie, this novel, fast-charging biohybrid battery system can be used to monitor the toxicity of drinking water, just one of many potential future applications.

Microbial fuel cells harness bacteria to generate electricity, exploiting the ability of some bacterial species to convert energy-rich molecules into electrical energy. In fully microbial batteries, bacteria also produce the energy carrier molecules during the charging process, which are then used to generate electricity during the discharging process. However, one of the disadvantages of fully microbial batteries is that charging is still rather inefficient and slow.

By coupling the purely inorganic electrochemical generation of a biological active molecule with a microbial fuel cell, Yong Jiang's research team at the Agriculture and Forestry University in Fuzhou, China, and colleagues, have for the first time developed a two-stage hybrid microbial battery system that overcomes many of the challenges faced by fully microbial batteries.

The team also aimed to produce a biohybrid battery using simple and inexpensive components to provide sustainable energy. They found that formic acid is a sustainable biological energy carrier, because it can be produced either biologically or electrocatalytically from carbon dioxide and is then available for consumption by the bacteria in the microbial fuel cell.

Using commercially available components, they designed an electrolysis cell in which inorganic catalysts convert carbon dioxide gas into formic acid. Using this design, the team found that the charging process takes place within a few minutes. Once formic acid has been produced and extracted from the electrolyte, it is fed into a second device—the microbial fuel cell—where bacteria slowly convert it into carbon dioxide and electricity at the bioanode.

(Futurity) The key to making batteries last longer may be found in how soap works, new research shows.

Take handwashing, for instance. When someone washes their hands with soap, the soap forms structures called micelles that trap and remove grease, dirt, and germs when flushed with water. The soap does this because it acts as bridge between the water and what is being cleaned away, by binding them and wrapping them into those micelle structures.

As reported in Nature Materials, researchers noticed that a similar process plays out in what has become one of the most promising substances for designing longer lasting lithium batteries—a new type of electrolyte called a localized high-concentration electrolyte.

This new understanding of how this process works might be the missing piece to fully kicking the door open in this emerging sector of technology, the researchers suggest in their paper.

“The big picture is that we want to improve and increase the energy density for batteries, meaning how much energy they store per cycle and how many cycles the battery lasts,” says Yue Qi, a professor in the School of Engineering at Brown University.

Electric vehicles are just like ordinary gas guzzlers in some respects, including their lifespan. They need to be replaced every once in a while. That kicks a whole ecosystem of automotive supply chain activity into gear, with a new carbon footprint piling up along the way. A longer-lasting solid-state EV battery would help cut those lifecycle emissions, and the startup EnergyX is among those hammering away at the problem.
Here’s Some Sustainable Lithium To Go With That New Solid-State EV Battery

Fourth Power says its ultra-high temperature "sun in a box" energy storage tech is more than 10X cheaper than lithium-ion batteries, and vastly more powerful and efficient than any other thermal battery. It's hoping to prove it with a 1-MWh prototype.

As a grid-level energy storage solution, Fourth aims to compete with big lithium battery arrays in the short-duration 5-10 hour range – basically storing excess solar energy during the heat of the day for use in the evening and at night when generation drops off. But the company says it's also relevant up to the 100-hour stage, which would cover the "several days of bad weather and poor renewable generation" case.

This is one of a number of thermal energy storage companies coming up out of Massachusetts and backed by Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund. You might remember Antora Energy from a few months ago, with its ultra-hot carbon block batteries and high-efficiency thermophotovoltaic energy converters, for example.

Electrolytes are key battery components that transfer charge carrying particles (i.e., ions) back and forth between two electrodes, ultimately allowing batteries to repeatedly charge and discharge. Engineering and identifying promising electrolytes can help to improve the performance and properties of batteries, allowing them to better support the needs of the electronics industry.

Lithium-metal batteries (LMBs) are a promising class of batteries that have been found to have numerous advantageous properties, including longer battery use per single charge. However, electrodes in these batteries are prone to become corroded when exposed to some chemicals, which makes the design of suitable liquid electrolytes for these batteries challenging.

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and LG Energy Solution in South Korea recently engineered a new liquid electrolyte for LMBs based on lean borate-pyran. Their paper, published in Nature Energy, shows that this electrolyte could minimize corrosion in LMBs, while retaining their performance.

(Eurekalert) Researchers led by Genki Kobayashi at the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research in Japan have developed a solid electrolyte for transporting hydride ions (H−) at room temperature. This breakthrough means that the advantages of hydrogen-based solid-state batteries and fuel cells are within practical reach, including improved safety, efficiency, and energy density, which are essential for advancing towards a practical hydrogen-based energy economy. The study was published in the scientific journal Advanced Energy Materials.

For hydrogen-based energy storage and fuel to become more widespread, it needs to be safe, very efficient, and as simple as possible. Current hydrogen-based fuel cells used in electric cars work by allowing hydrogen protons to pass from one end of the fuel cell to the other through a polymer membrane when generating energy. Efficient, high-speed hydrogen movement in these fuel cells requires water, meaning that the membrane must be continually hydrated so that it does not dry out. This constraint adds an additional layer of complexity and cost to battery and fuel cell design that limits the practicality of a next-generation hydrogen-based energy economy. To overcome this problem, scientists have been struggling to find a way to conduct negative hydride ions through solid materials, particularly at room temperature.

The wait is over. “We have achieved a true milestone,” says Kobayashi. “Our result is the first demonstration of a hydride ion-conducting solid electrolyte at room temperature.”

Polymer-air batteries often face challenges related to stability, kinetics and conductivity. In response, Dr. Jodie Lutkenhaus has developed a method to use a polymer as an anode in these batteries.

In a recent article published in Joule, Lutkenhaus, associate department head of internal engagement and chemical engineering professor at Texas A&M University, collaborated with chemical engineering professor Dr. Abdoulaye Djire to reveal how these polymers store and exchange charge with the electrolyte.

"The cathode reacts with oxygen from air to complete the circuit. We specifically targeted the use of a conjugated polymer with a rigid backbone structure for the anode," Lutkenhaus said.

These features make the polymer both conductive and stable, enabling the necessary reversible reactions required for repeated charging and discharging, she said.

Despite the benefits of aqueous polymer-air batteries, including improved safety, reduced cost, higher ionic conductivity and sustainability, their electrochemical performance is limited, the article stated.

(Eurekalert) Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new lithium metal battery that can be charged and discharged at least 6,000 times — more than any other pouch battery cell — and can be recharged in a matter of minutes.

The research not only describes a new way to make solid state batteries with a lithium metal anode but also offers new understanding into the materials used for these potentially revolutionary batteries.

The research is published in Nature Materials.

“Lithium metal anode batteries are considered the holy grail of batteries because they have ten times the capacity of commercial graphite anodes and could drastically increase the driving distance of electric vehicles,” said Xin Li, Associate Professor of Materials Science at SEAS and senior author of the paper. “Our research is an important step toward more practical solid state batteries for industrial and commercial applications.”

One of the biggest challenges in the design of these batteries is the formation of dendrites on the surface of the anode. These structures grow like roots into the electrolyte and pierce the barrier separating the anode and cathode, causing the battery to short or even catch fire.

Many electric vehicles are powered by batteries that contain cobalt—a metal that carries high financial, environmental, and social costs.

MIT researchers have now designed a battery material that could offer a more sustainable way to power electric cars. The new lithium-ion battery includes a cathode based on organic materials, instead of cobalt or nickel (another metal often used in lithium-ion batteries).

In a new study, the researchers showed that this material, which could be produced at much lower cost than cobalt-containing batteries, can conduct electricity at similar rates as cobalt batteries. The new battery also has comparable storage capacity and can be charged up faster than cobalt batteries, the researchers report.

"I think this material could have a big impact because it works really well," says Mircea Dincă, the W.M. Keck Professor of Energy at MIT. "It is already competitive with incumbent technologies, and it can save a lot of the cost and pain and environmental issues related to mining the metals that currently go into batteries."

Dincă is the senior author of the study, which is published today (Jan. 18) in the journal ACS Central Science. Tianyang Chen Ph.D. '23 and Harish Banda, a former MIT postdoc, are the lead authors of the paper. Other authors include Jiande Wang, an MIT postdoc; Julius Oppenheim, an MIT graduate student; and Alessandro Franceschi, a research fellow at the University of Bologna.