Battery Technology

A closer look reveals how speedy charging may hamper battery performance. While gas tanks can be filled in a matter of minutes, charging the battery of an electric car takes much longer. To level the playing field and make electric vehicles more attractive, scientists are working on fast-charging technologies. Fast charging is very important for…

The lithium ion batteries that power electric vehicles and phones charge and discharge by ferrying lithium ions back and forth between two electrodes, an anode and a cathode. The more lithium ions the electrodes are able to absorb and release, the more energy the battery can store. One issue plaguing today’s commercial battery materials is…

Electronic products, electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage closely related to human life create an ever-growing demand for rechargeable batteries. Lithium-ion batteries, which are currently widely used, do not perform well in terms of energy density and safety. As for rechargeable magnesium (Mg) metal batteries developed later, the lack of Mg electrolytes capable of effectively…

Researchers at the Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech) in Japan have demonstrated that a specific material can act as an efficient battery component for sodium-ion batteries that will compete with lithium-ion batteries for several battery characteristics, especially speed of charge. The findings were published in Scientific Reports in November of 2018 and was headed by…

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) believe 2D materials could make effective catalysts to make lithium-air batteries more efficient, while providing more charge. The research team synthesized several different 2D materials and found that a number of them enabled the battery to hold up to 10 times more energy than lithium-air batteries…

Researchers from the University of Houston and the Toyota Research Institute of America have discovered a promising new version of high-energy magnesium batteries, with potential applications ranging from electric vehicles to battery storage for renewable energy systems. The battery, reported Dec. 21 in Joule, is the first reported to operate with limited electrolytes while using…

The research team at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology has reported that adding water into electrolyte improves the function of vanadium oxide, which is one of positive electrode material in calcium-ion batteries. Although water in electrolytes is known to produce many negative effects, it has now been found…

Rechargeable Li-ion batteries are crucial parts for home electronics and portable devices such as cell phones and laptops. One can imagine how the life we have today would be like without cell phones and internet. Li-ion batteries (LIBs) are also growing in popularity for electric vehicle which can help to highly reduce the emission of…

Researchers from Rice University have developed films of carbon nanotubes that they hope will help produce high-powered, fast-charging lithium metal batteries. Lately, there has been a growing push for sustainable and off-grid energy storage, which has led to lithium metal being explored as a possible anode in the next generation of batteries. However, lithium metal…

Carbon fibers could soon become part of the energy system for the next generation of structural batteries. Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have discovered that carbon fibers can directly store energy by working as battery electrodes, which could ultimately contribute to an overall weight-reduction in future aircrafts and vehicles. While carbon fiber…

In late July of 2008 a British solar plane set an unofficial flight-endurance record by remaining aloft for more than three days straight. Lithium-sulfur batteries emerged as one of the great technological advances that enabled the flight -powering the plane overnight with efficiency unmatched by the top batteries of the day. Ten years later, the…

A silver manganate nanoplate has enabled scientists to create a safer, more energy efficient aluminum-based air flow battery at a lower cost. Researchers from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology have used the new catalyst to develop an aluminum-air flow battery that could enable electric vehicle drivers to have battery packs that have…

Scientists have devised a way to stabilize and improve how sodium can be used in batteries, in an effort to replace lithium, which is rapidly becoming scarce. Researchers from Purdue University have developed a sodium powder for a sodium-ion battery that could allow manufacturers to replace the use of lithium, the majority of which are…

Over the past three decades, lithium-ion batteries, rechargeable batteries that move lithium ions back and forth to charge and discharge, have enabled smaller devices that juice up faster and last longer. Now, X-ray experiments at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have revealed that the pathways lithium ions…