IFLScience : "New Lithium Battery Is Five Times Better Than Current Ones"

HiTiT · January 25, 2016, 10:43am

I think that we have another good news here

Source:

Quote:

Anyone with a smartphone has had battery woes. It might be constant poor performances or shutting off when we need it the most. We could all do with better batteries, and now researchers might have developed something of use.

An international team of scientists has developed a battery that could store to up five times more energy than today’s lithium-ion batteries. The prototype is called a lithium-air battery, because when discharged it releases oxygen. The findings were published in Nature.

The current design of lithium-air batteries uses lithium peroxide. The positive end of the battery has metallic lithium that reacts with the oxygen in the air, storing energy in the chemical bonds. Lithium peroxide is not the most efficient, though, as it binds very tightly with lithium, so researchers have been looking for an alternative approach.

The team developed a new prototype that instead stores energy in lithium superoxide, which can break down more easily, producing greater efficiency and a good battery life. A peroxide is an ion of molecular oxygen where two electrons are missing while a superoxide is only missing one. When a battery is being charged the lithium becomes a positive ion and bonds with the oxides. When it’s in use the lithium and oxide separate, releasing the stored energy.

The lithium superoxide has another major advantage: It is a closed system just like the lithium-ion batteries in current devices. Being a closed system means it doesn’t require an extra intake of oxygen or removal of components, it only requires to be charged like any other battery we commonly use.

“This discovery really opens a pathway for the potential development of a new kind of battery,” Larry Curtiss, one of the coauthors of the research, said in a statement.

“Although a lot more research is needed, the cycle life of the battery is what we were looking for.”

koyotee · January 25, 2016, 10:51am

It’s just about 6 months from the last “new brakethrough in batteries” news, so nothing new really

HiTiT · January 25, 2016, 11:06am

Yep:) nothing new went into production.

But who knows, now we have 2 new researches that might be the next generation of the li-ion batteries:

- “solid-state” li-ion

and the new “superoxide” li-ion

I hope that at least one of them goes into production in the near future.

light-wolff · January 26, 2016, 5:36pm

Rather 6 weeks…

The_Miller · January 26, 2016, 6:20pm

Without research we would have never got to the point where we are
Without money research is tricky
Without outlandish claims less money will flow towards research
So I say let them claim and research so we can benefit from it later

Bort · January 26, 2016, 6:29pm

I disagree, with outlandish claims people become more cynical and give up on research. With the world economy being what it is businesses and especially governments have tightened the purse strings and basic research is the first thing to get axed.
The opposite would be smarter, research provides jobs, and real discoveries which cost lots of money lead to better products and solve problems, but hype is counter productive.

1dash1 · January 26, 2016, 6:56pm

“Brakethrough”, I like that. Like coming to a screaching halt after a major breakthrough. :party:

WalkIntoTheLight · January 26, 2016, 7:05pm

Battery technology has made small incremental improvements for the past 200 years. The chemistry is well understood. We’re not going to make huge leaps in technology overnight. 5x improvement? Sure, maybe in the next 25 or 50 years. But not in the next few years. I’ll bet my huge stock of Eneloops on that!

hank · January 27, 2016, 3:26am

For values of “is” equal to “someday maybe”

Lightgecko · January 27, 2016, 4:50pm

According to the datasheet for panasonic’s ncr18650b cell, the capacity does decrease as the cell ages, but it is still expected to last at least 500 charge cycles. Lithium-Iron-Phosphate is not a new technology. The energy density is lower as well as the nominal voltage. Both are already problems in flashlights.

Lightgecko · January 27, 2016, 7:39pm

Panasonic ncr18650b energy density: 243Wh per kilogram
Headway 38120 energy density: 105wh per kilogram

Straight from the datasheet

MauiSon · January 27, 2016, 6:21pm

A mad rush to fall into the sun? Technology will save us from the [unintended] consequences of past technologies? A stab in the dark.

led4power · January 28, 2016, 9:28am

If this is true,lead acid should be good for 10k+ cycles,but it isn't.

One of the main reasons why LiFePO4 has better cycle life than LiCo2 and similar chemistries is lower working voltage.

4.2-4.35V is much closer to electrolyte breakdown voltage,so even at 4.2V there is small amount of electrolyte that "breaks down" and that process is irreversible. By charging LiCo2 cell to 4.1V instead 4.2,you would increase cycle life by factor of 2,but energy density drops by maybe 10%.But,by charging the same cell to 4.3V,cycle life would drop to only 50%. So,4.2V is sweet spot for decent life cycle and close to maximum energy in most cases.

More info here:

Because of electrolyte degradation problems,the worst thing you can do is keeping charger conneted 100% of time,this way cell is constantly at 4.2V and can degrade quickly,so cycle life can be few times less than claimed.

HKJ · January 28, 2016, 10:18am

Why should we stop thinking that, when they hide a lot of stuff?