Solid-state electrolytes are the talk of the town these days. California-based PATHION has been working to commercialize solid electrolytes since its founding in 2012, building on its exclusive license from Los Alamos National Laboratories for a promising material called Lithium-Rich Anti-Perovskite (LiRAP). At the recent Materials Research Conference, PATHION presented two new superionic solid-state electrolytes built upon… Read more »
The latest advance in lithium-sulfur technology comes courtesy of a research team from Samsung and the University of Rome, who have built a solid-state Li-S battery with a capacity (∼1600 mAhg−1) approaching the theoretical value and Coulombic efficiency approaching 99%. In a paper published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, the team concludes that… Read more »
SolidEnergy, an MIT spin-out company commercializing solid electrolyte technology, plans to release a 20 Ah EV battery in 2017, which it says will offer more than two times the range of current Li-ion batteries. The core of SolidEnergy’s technology is a Solid Polymer Ionic Liquid (SPIL) electrolyte, which enables the use of an ultra-thin lithium… Read more »
A team from the University of Waterloo in Canada and BASF has developed a way to stabilize cathodes in lithium-sulfur batteries, significantly improving performance and cycle life. Li-S batteries offer high theoretical energy density and low cost, due to the high natural abundance of sulfur. However, the insulating nature of sulfur and lithium sulfides requires… Read more »
The Canadian Transport Ministry has officially banned the transport of lithium metal batteries as cargo on passenger flights, bringing its regulations into line with a ban adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization in 2014 (the US has already instituted a ban). The new rule does not apply to lithium-ion batteries, or to lithium metal… Read more »
The separator is a critical component of a battery. It provides a barrier between the anode and the cathode while enabling the exchange of ionic charge carriers from one side to the other. For over 40 years, the Freudenberg Group has been producing separators for nickel-based batteries, such as the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) cells widely… Read more »
The Fraunhofer Institute will hold its third annual workshop on lithium-sulfur batteries in Dresden, Germany, on November 12 and 13. Lithium-sulfur is a leading contender for the battery chemistry of the future, and Fraunhofer believes that novel materials such as nanostructured carbon/sulfur composite cathodes, solid electrolytes and alloy-based anodes will significantly enhance performance. Dr Oliver… Read more »
A lot of research has been done to improve lithium-ion battery safety, cycle life and power output over a range of high and low temperatures, yet understanding the fundamental processes and degradation mechanisms in Li-ion batteries remains a challenge. To understand the degradation processes of lithium-ion batteries, it is important to understand how they operate…. Read more »
Are the knights of nanotechnology closing in on the Grail at last? A team of researchers at Stanford University claim that they are, and have chronicled their deeds in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. The valiant engineers report that they have designed a pure lithium anode. “Of all the materials that one might use in an… Read more »
In the quest for higher energy density, the use of lithium metal anodes would seem to be a promising approach, if it weren’t for those doggone dendrites. Dendrites are microscopic fibers of lithium, which sprout, tree-like, from the surface of the lithium electrode and spread through the electrolyte until they reach the other electrode, possibly… Read more »