Mike Zimmerman, CEO and founder of Ionic Materials, has this to say about his company: “Ionic will play a major role in the solution to the world’s energy problems.” That’s a pretty bold statement. But then again, Mike Zimmerman is a pretty bold man. An experienced polymer scientist, Zimmerman has worked on a number of… Read more »
Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada have developed a way to stabilize lithium metal electrodes by forming a single-ion-conducting and stable protective surface layer in vivo. In “An In Vivo Formed Solid Electrolyte Surface Layer Enables Stable Plating of Li Metal,” published in the journal Joule, Quan Pang, Xiao Liang and colleagues explain how they… Read more »
Researchers from Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, and the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have built a prototype solid-state battery based on sodium as an alternative to lithium. The scientists described their research in the journal Energy and Environmental Science. Using metallic lithium as an anode material would theoretically increase energy… Read more »
Reborn automaker Fisker has filed patents for a new type of solid-state battery technology that it says could lead to much greater energy density and faster charging times. According to Fisker, current limitations of solid-state technology include low electrode current density, limited temperature ranges and non-scalable manufacturing processes. Other drawbacks include: low power and low… Read more »
The Battery500 consortium, led by the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), intends to build a battery pack with a specific energy of 500 Wh/kg, which would more than double the 170-200 Wh/kg per kilogram in today’s typical EV battery. Part of the initiative is the “Seedling” program, which identifies new and risky battery research… Read more »
Replacing a liquid electrolyte with a solid electrolyte could offer major advantages for both safety and energy storage capacity, but so far, attempts to develop a practical solid-state cell have run into major obstacles. Liquid electrolytes can be flammable, and are also prone to the formation of dendrites -thin, fingerlike projections of metal that build… Read more »
The DOE is awarding $19.4 million to 22 new cost-shared research projects in the fields of advanced batteries, lightweight materials, emission control, and energy-efficient mobility systems. Fifteen of these are Phase 1 Battery Seedling projects, aimed at battery materials and approaches that complement the Battery500 Consortium’s research. Promising Phase 1 awardees will be competitively weeded… Read more »
IMAGE: Using specialized equipment, a team from MIT did tests in which they used a pyramidal-tipped probe to indent the surface of a piece of the sulfide-based material. Surrounding the resulting indentation (seen at center), cracks were seen forming in the material (indicated by arrows), revealing details of its mechanical properties. Battery scientists are the world are exploring… Read more »
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have devised a new strategy for an all-solid-state sodium or lithium EV battery cell. In “Alternative Strategy for a Safe Rechargeable Battery,” published in Energy & Environmental Science, noted lithium-ion battery pioneer Professor John Goodenough and his colleagues explain that the cells use a solid glass electrolyte…. Read more »
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 »