Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are a promising alternative to lithium–ion batteries (LiBs), the most common rechargeable battery technology. As sulfur is abundant on Earth, these batteries could be cheaper and more environmentally friendly than LiBs, while also potentially exhibiting higher energy densities.
Despite these advantages, the deployment of Li–S batteries has so far been limited, as many of these batteries also have a low cycle life and a high self-discharge rate. In addition, the predicted high energy density of Li–S batteries often becomes far lower when in real applications, due to the high rates at which they charge and discharge.
A chemical reaction that plays a central role in ensuring the high capacity of Li–S batteries is the so-called sulfur reduction reaction (SRR). This reaction has been widely studied, yet its kinetic tendencies at high current rates remain poorly understood.
India in undersea race to mine world’s battery metal
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India is taking another step in its quest to find valuable minerals hidden in the depths of the ocean which could hold the key to a cleaner future.
The country, which already has two deep-sea exploration licences in the Indian Ocean, has applied for two more amid increasing competition between major global powers to secure critical minerals.
Countries including China, Russia and India are vying to reach the huge deposits of mineral resources - cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese - that lie thousands of metres below the surface of oceans. These are used to produce renewable energy such as solar and wind power, electric vehicles and battery technology needed to battle against climate change.
The UN-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA) has issued 31 exploration licences so far, of which 30 are active. Its member countries are meeting in Jamaica this week to discuss regulations around giving out mining licences.
If the ISA approves India's new applications, its licence count will be equal to that of Russia and one less than China.
The pursuit of greener energy also requires efficient rechargeable batteries to store that energy. While lithium-ion batteries are currently the most widely used, all-solid-state sodium batteries are attracting attention as sodium is far more plentiful than lithium. This should make sodium batteries less expensive, and solid-state batteries are thought to be safer, but processing issues mean mass production has been difficult.
Osaka Metropolitan University Associate Professor Atsushi Sakuda and Professor Akitoshi Hayashi, both of the Graduate School of Engineering, led a research team in developing a process that can lead to mass synthesis for sodium-containing sulfides. The results were published in Energy Storage Materials and Inorganic Chemistry
Chinese scientists say new calcium-based battery offers ‘cheaper, safer’ alternative to lithium-ion cells
Fudan University team creates battery able to charge and discharge fully 700 times at room temperature, in a first for the calcium-based technology
With calcium 2,500 times more abundant than lithium, battery offers viable option with possibly comparable energy density, team says in Nature paper
China's CATL – the world's largest EV battery producer – has launched TENER, which is described as the "world's first mass-producible energy storage system with zero degradation in the first five years of use."
As anyone who uses a smartphone or drives an electric vehicle will know, the lithium-based batteries at the heart of such technologies won't always operate like new, they will lose some energy capacity over time – meaning more time plugged in.
Though improvements in energy density and charging technologies should help eke more time away from the charger, zero degradation is the ultimate goal. And that's what China's CATL – the world's largest EV battery maker, ahead of LG, BYD, Samsung and Panasonic – is promising its TENER (or Tianheng, depending where you are in the world) development can achieve, for the first five years of use anyway.
With atmospheric carbon dioxide at record highs, the search for clean-energy alternatives to the use of fossil fuels is growing increasingly urgent.
One obstacle that researchers face is that current fuel-cell technology relies on the use of expensive metal catalysts like platinum to convert hydrogen into energy; however, a team from the University of Virginia's College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences has identified an organic molecule that could be an effective and less costly substitute for conventional metal catalysts.
The fuel cells that make electric vehicles and industrial and residential generators possible and that are needed to store energy generated by wind or the sun use metals like platinum to trigger the chemical reaction that splits fuel sources like hydrogen gas into protons and electrons that are then harnessed as electricity.
Until now, organic substitutes for rare-metal catalysts were not considered practical because the catalysis process causes them to break down into component parts that are no longer useful. In a paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, however, associate professors of chemistry Charles Machan and Michael Hilinski, along with Ph.D. students Emma Cook and Anna Davis, identify an organic molecule composed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and fluorine that has the potential to be a practical substitute.
The energy demands of today's ubiquitous small electronic devices—including sensors, data transmitters, medical implants and 'wearable' consumer products such as Fitbits—can no longer be met by chemical batteries alone. This gap can be filled by energy harvesters, which turn ordinary, ambient vibrational energy into electrical energy.
The most efficient types of harvester are tri-stable energy harvesters, which can convert even low-frequency random vibrations into alternating current (AC) and thence into direct current (DC).
Tingting Zhang and Yanfei Jin from Beijing Institute of Technology in China have now investigated how the properties of these systems can be altered to optimize the power output; their findings are published in the European Physical Journal B.
Sodium (Na), which is over 500 times more abundant than lithium (Li), has recently garnered significant attention for its potential in sodium-ion battery technologies. However, existing sodium-ion batteries face fundamental limitations, including lower power output, constrained storage properties, and longer charging times, necessitating the development of next-generation energy storage materials.
A research team led by Professor Jeung Ku Kang from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering has developed a high-energy, high-power hybrid sodium-ion battery capable of rapid charging.
Scientists build battery that can charge in seconds
1 hour ago
Scientists have developed a battery capable of charging in just a few seconds.
A team from South Korea made the breakthrough with next-generation sodium batteries, which are both cheaper and safer than the conventional lithium-ion batteries found in smartphones and electric cars.
Sodium (Na) is also 500 times more abundant than lithium, while also holding the potential for greater charge and efficiency than its Li-ion counterpart.
Until now, Na-ion batteries have faced limitations preventing them from being adopted on any significant scale, including long charging times and a lack of storage capacity.
Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) were able to overcome these issues by developing a high-energy, high-power sodium-ion battery capable of rapid charging.
Electric vehicles and portable electronic devices such as laptops and mobile phones are unthinkable without lithium-ion batteries. The problem is highly toxic materials such as cobalt are often used for the cathodes of these batteries, which jeopardize the environment and the health of people in the countries where they are mined. In addition, the reserves of these metals are very limited.
A research team at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) has now achieved a decisive breakthrough in battery technology. The team, led by Prof Dr. Michael J. Bojdys, has developed a high-performance sulfur-based cathode.
Sulfur is a sustainable alternative to the materials commonly used in lithium-ion batteries because it is less toxic and—unlike cobalt—is abundant. However, the storage capacity of batteries in which sulfur is used as a cathode material has so far declined rapidly.
