Donghai Wang, who leads the Energy Nanostructure Laboratory at Penn State, has won a $1.1-million grant from the DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office to develop a new lithium-ion conductor that will prevent the formation of dendrites, the bane of lithium metal anodes. Wang and his team plan to use thin layers of nanostructured hybrid materials to… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "lithium metal"
Sion Power’s Licerion advances Li-metal anode technology
Arizona battery developer Sion Power has reported that one of its Licerion battery systems has achieved specific energy of 400 Wh/kg, energy density of 700 Wh/L and a lifetime of 350 cycles. Dr. Yuriy Mikhaylik, Sion Power’s Director of Materials, presented details at a recent meeting of the Electrochemical Society. Licerion, a product of Sion… Read more »
MIT researchers discover two forms of lithium dendrite formation
Battery researchers around the world are working on lithium metal electrodes, which have the potential to greatly increase energy density. But the drawback to lithium in this form comes in the form of dendrites, root-like lithium deposits that form on the metal surface and can harm performance and even lead to short circuits. Now a… Read more »
New catalyst advances lithium-air battery tech
Images from Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) show catalyzed cells exhibiting longer cycle life than uncatalyzed cells under similar cycling conditions. Credit: Ates, M. N., et al. (2016) Lithium-air batteries, which have the highest theoretical energy density of all known battery devices, could revolutionize the energy economy. However, there are several technical challenges to… Read more »
Oilprice.com says lithium is poised for more price spikes
Some call lithium “white gold,” but in fact, lately the light metal has been beating gold in appreciation, becoming the hottest metal of 2016 for commodities traders. Although lithium’s price rise has slowed in recent months, the fundamentals suggest strong potential for long-term growth, according to James Stafford of Oilprice.com. “There is no doubt as… Read more »
Elon Musk debunks scare stories about a shortage of lithium
Elon Musk and JB Straubel covered a lot of ground in a nearly-three-hour performance at Tesla’s 2016 annual shareholder meeting. They recapped the history of the company, explained why Supercharging will not be free for Model 3 buyers, and discussed their plans to remake the auto production process. They also made some very interesting remarks… Read more »
Texas Mineral Resources to establish lithium subsidiary to market Round Top lithium
Texas Mineral Resources Corp. (TMRC), an exploration company targeting rare earths and other high-value industrial minerals, plans to establish a separate subsidiary to market the lithium it hopes to produce from its poly-metallic Round Top deposit. Recent column leach tests found that Round Top rhyolite crushed and leached in sulfuric acid for 60 days (what… Read more »
New study: Lithium cost swings unlikely to impact battery prices
Global lithium prices have doubled over the last six months, sparking a scramble to secure sources of the metallic element, and causing pundits to ponder whether white lightning may be the new black gold. However, a new study by a Carnegie Mellon University team has found that even large increases in lithium prices are unlikely… Read more »
Researchers developing improved method for lithium recovery from brine
Demand for lithium is on the rise, and the rush is on for new sources of the light white stuff. Researchers in Finland are developing new methods to extract lithium from natural brine that promise more efficiency and greater purity. Most lithium is produced from salt lake deposits. Brine is pumped up and concentrated by… Read more »
Companies scramble to secure lithium supplies as “white petroleum” prices soar
The hottest commodity on the planet right now is not oil or coffee but lithium, according to a recent article on OilPrice.com. The ballooning battery market is expected to drive demand for the light white metal, and mining companies, battery producers and automakers are scrambling to secure supplies. Goldman Sachs predicts that for every 1%… Read more »