Batteries & Energy Storage news and discussions

[weatheriscool]

Progress to Lithium Air Battery With 4X Energy Density of Lithium Batteries
April 11, 2023 by Brian Wang

The lithium-air battery has the highest projected energy density of any battery technology being considered for the next generation of batteries beyond lithium-ion. The Argonne Lab team’s lithium-air design is the first lithium-air battery that has achieved a four-electron reaction at room temperature. It also operates with oxygen supplied by air from the surrounding environment. The capability to run with air avoids the need for oxygen tanks to operate, a problem with earlier designs.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/04/p ... eries.html

[weatheriscool]

A scalable strategy to synthesize purer and highly performing single-crystal cathodes
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-04-sca ... ystal.html
by Ingrid Fadelli , Tech Xplore

Energy engineers and material scientists are continuously trying to create safe battery technologies that exhibit higher energy densities and efficiencies, along with longer life cycles. As lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) are among the most widespread battery technologies, many current research efforts focus on improving the individual components of these batteries, including cathodes, the positive electrodes inside battery cells.

Most proposed cathodes for LiBs have polycrystalline morphologies, meaning that they are comprised multiple different crystalline particles. While these cathodes are easy to fabricate on a large-scale, they are prone to cracking during battery cycling, which can isolate some active materials inside them, exposing them to liquid electrolytes and potentially degrading the battery's performance.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea recently introduced a new scalable strategy for synthesizing single-crystalline cathodes with a high phase purity and good electrochemical performance. This strategy, introduced in Nature Energy, consists in using molten Li salts to corrode the boundaries between smaller grains and transform them into bigger crystals, resulting in single-crystal layered cathodes.

"Constrained by the accessible temperature range to prevent lithium evaporation, lattice defects and particle agglomerations, the production of single-crystalline cathodes with high phase purity, good electrochemical performance and scalability remains challenging," Moonsu Yoon, Yanhao Dong and their colleagues told Tech Xplore.

[caltrek]

Tiny Biobattery With 100-year Shelf Life Runs on Bacteria
April 18, 2023

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- A tiny biobattery that could still work after 100 years has been developed by researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Last fall, Binghamton University Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi and his Bioelectronics and Microsystems Laboratory published their research into an ingestible biobattery activated by the Ph factor of the human intestine.

Now, he and PhD student Maryam Rezaie have taken what they learned and incorporated it into new ideas for use outside the body.

A new study in the journal Small, which covers nanotechnology, shares the results from using spore-forming bacteria similar to the previous ingestible version to create a device that potentially would still work after 100 years.

“The overall objective is to develop a microbial fuel cell that can be stored for a relatively long period without degradation of biocatalytic activity and also can be rapidly activated by absorbing moisture from the air,” said Choi, a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/986491

[caltrek]

Scientists Create A Fully Rechargeable Battery, Made Entirely From Food
by David Nield
April 18 , 2023

Introduction:

(Science Alert) Scientists are continuing to make advances in electronics that can safely monitor and treat our health from inside the body. Unfortunately, powering these miniature medical gadgets isn't always straightforward.

There's now a new type of rechargeable battery that could help in that department. Made from fully edible substances, it can dissolve safely in the stomach once it's done whatever it needs to do.

The prototype device outlined in a new study operates at a harmless 0.65 volts and provides a current of 48 microamperes for 12 minutes – within the range needed to give tiny electronics a power supply.

"Future potential uses range from edible circuits and sensors that can monitor health conditions to the powering of sensors for monitoring food storage conditions," says senior author Mario Caironi, a molecular electronics researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology.

"Moreover, given the level of safety of these batteries, they could be used in children's toys, where there is a high risk of ingestion."

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientist ... from-food

[Powers]

Scientists Create A Fully Rechargeable Battery, Made Entirely From Food
by David Nield
April 18 , 2023

Introduction:

(Science Alert) Scientists are continuing to make advances in electronics that can safely monitor and treat our health from inside the body. Unfortunately, powering these miniature medical gadgets isn't always straightforward.

There's now a new type of rechargeable battery that could help in that department. Made from fully edible substances, it can dissolve safely in the stomach once it's done whatever it needs to do.

The prototype device outlined in a new study operates at a harmless 0.65 volts and provides a current of 48 microamperes for 12 minutes – within the range needed to give tiny electronics a power supply.

"Future potential uses range from edible circuits and sensors that can monitor health conditions to the powering of sensors for monitoring food storage conditions," says senior author Mario Caironi, a molecular electronics researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology.

"Moreover, given the level of safety of these batteries, they could be used in children's toys, where there is a high risk of ingestion."

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientist ... from-food

Waste too?

[wjfox]

"Condensed battery" could power aircraft

19th April 2023

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) has today launched a new "condensed battery" with up to 500 Wh/kg. This ultra-high energy density could enable the electrification of passenger aircraft.

Founded in 2011, CATL has grown to become the world's largest producer of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, with a market share of nearly 35%. It has formed partnerships with many foreign automakers including BMW, Daimler, Tesla, and Volkswagen.

Today, at the Auto Shanghai exhibition, CATL has launched a new cutting-edge battery technology, offering both high energy density and safety, which the company says can achieve mass production in a short time.

The energy per unit mass of 500 Wh/kg is around twice that of typical Li-ion batteries. In addition to doubling the range of EVs, this could enable longer-haul electrified aviation, reducing air pollution.

https://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/202 ... meline.htm

[caltrek]

Greener Batteries
April 21, 2023

Entire Article:

(Eurekalert) Our modern rechargeable batteries, such as lithium-ion batteries, are anything but sustainable. One alternative is organic batteries with redox-organic electrode materials (OEMs), which can be synthesized from natural “green” materials. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a Chinese team has now introduced a new OEM for aqueous organic high-capacity batteries that can be easily and cheaply recycled.
Traditional inorganic electrode materials in commercial batteries involve a whole spectrum of problems: limited resources, toxic elements, environmental problems, partly unacceptable mining conditions, limited capacity, difficulties in recycling, and high costs. No sustainable batteries can be developed on a large scale based on these electrodes, though they are needed for an energy transition.

Organic batteries with OEMs are still at the very beginning of their long road toward practical application. A team led by Chengliang Wang at Huazhong University of Science and Technology has now taken a significant step in this direction. The goal is to use OEMs in batteries with aqueous electrolytes. These are “greener”, more sustainable, and less expensive than the conventional organic electrolytes in lithium-ion batteries.

The team chose to use azobenzene, a material that can be produced inexpensively on a large scale and is insoluble in water while being highly soluble in organic solvents. Whereas most other functional groups can only transfer one electron, the azo group (–N=N–) in this molecule is able to reversibly transfer two electrons, which contributes to a high capacity. Comprehensive analyses demonstrated that, during the discharge process, the azobenzene is converted to hydroazobenzene after absorbing two of the electrons—through the rapid, reversible binding of two protons (H+).

Prototype coin cells and laminated pouch cells of various sizes with azobenzene OEMs and zinc counter-electrodes reached capacities on the scale of ampere hours, which were retained over 200 charge/discharge cycles.

In contrast to polymeric OEMs, the small azobenzene molecules can be inexpensively recycled with a simple extraction using commercial organic solvents. The electrode material is air stable in both its charged and discharged states and can be recycled in yields of over 90% in every state of charge. The recycled products could be directly reused as OEMs with no loss of capacity.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/986927

[weatheriscool]

GM, Samsung plan new EV battery cell factory in US
Source: AP

By TOM KRISHER 21 minutes ago

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors and South Korea’s Samsung SDI plan to invest more than $3 billion in a new electric vehicle battery cell plant in the United States, the companies said Tuesday.

They did not announce the intended location of the new factory, which is expected to begin operations in 2026, GM and Samsung SDI said in a statement. GM and Samsung SDI plan to jointly operate the factory, which is expected to make nickel-rich prismatic and cylindrical cells. The companies said it was expected to create thousands of jobs.

The project is GM’s fourth joint venture battery cell factory. It has announced three others with South Korea’s LG Energy Solution. A 900-worker factory near Warren, Ohio, is starting to build cells, while plants in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and Lansing, Michigan, are in the works.

The announcement coincides with a visit to the United States by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. The two countries are marking the 70th anniversary of their alliance with a summit that was also feature announcements on new nuclear deterence efforts, cyber security and other areas of cooperation.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/gm-samsung-k ... 74ae33f746

[caltrek]

Zinc Batteries
by Fabio Bergamin
April 24, 2023

Introduction:

(Futurity) Maria Lukatskaya, professor of electrochemical energy systems at ETH Zurich, and colleagues in the US and Switzerland are searching for the ideal salt concentration for water-based zinc-ion batteries. Using experiments supported by computer simulations, they were able to reveal that the ideal salt concentration is not, as was previously assumed, the highest one possible, but a relatively low one: five to 10 water molecules per salt’s positive ion.

What’s more, the researchers didn’t use any environmentally harmful salts for their improvements, opting instead for environmentally friendly salts of acetic acid, called acetates.

“With an ideal concentration of acetates, we were able to minimize electrolyte depletion and prevent zinc dendrites just as well as other scientists previously did with high concentrations of toxic salts,” says Dario Gomez Vazquez, a doctoral student in Lukatskaya’s group and lead author of the study in the journal Energy & Environmental Science. “Moreover, with our approach, the batteries can be charged and discharged much faster.”
So far, the researchers have tested their new battery strategy on a relatively small laboratory scale. The next step will be to scale up the approach and see if it can also be translated for large batteries.

Ideally, these might one day be used as storage units in the power grid to compensate for fluctuations, say, or in the basements of single-family homes to allow solar power produced during the day to be used in the evening.

To read more of the Futurity article: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articl ... 3EE00205E

[caltrek]

New Concept for Lithium-air Batteries

May 5, 2023

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) Lithium-air batteries, also known as lithium-oxygen batteries, are candidates for the next generation of high-energy electricity storage devices. Their theoretical energy storage capacity is ten times that of conventional lithium-ion batteries of the same weight, but they are not yet chemically stable enough to provide a reliable solution. Now a newly launched collaborative research project in which a team from the University of Oldenburg, Germany, led by chemist Professor Dr. Gunther Wittstock is participating is testing a new concept to extend the life of these battery cells.

The project, entitled "Alternative materials and components for aprotic lithium-oxygen batteries: chemistry and stability of inactive components – AMaLiS 2.0", is led by IOLITEC Ionic Liquids Technologies, a company based in Heilbronn, Germany. The MEET (Münster Electrochemical Energy Technology) Battery Research Center at the University of Münster and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Bremen are also taking part. The project will receive around 1.1 million euros in funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research over a three-year period.

Lithium-air batteries basically work in the same way as conventional battery types, but in this type of battery the reaction of lithium ions with oxygen from the air at the positive electrode is used to generate electricity. The big advantage is that lithium-air batteries can store almost as much energy per kilogram as fossil fuels. This means that they have a similar specific energy to today's batteries but weigh much less, which makes them attractive for use in electric cars as well as in stationary energy storage. "However, before we get that far there are still a number of technical problems to be solved," Wittstock underlines. One of these challenges is the lack of electrolyte that are chemically stable at both the positive and the negative electrode. These conductive fluids or solids are located in the area between the two electrodes.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/988376