Thread for new battery breakthrough PR releases

Yeah what he said..

I've been reading a lot about future lithium chemistries. Currently, the higher voltage you aim for, the less life you get.
the 4.2/4.7v nominal cell has been a holy grail for a long time, and nobody's really nailed it.

Our government on the other hand somehow has the money to blow on fancy lipo that only last what, 100 cycles or less.
Well actually.. a soldier usually carries around 100lbs of crap so the better the energy density, the less stress on the body..

And yes, higher voltage = higher energy density. You can think of cells in terms of amp hours *and* watt hours.
 
Not 100 cycles. 1 cycle.

But lithium silicon is what to use in that budget.

If it has tiny power needs, but big energy needs, lithium air.
 
auraslip said:
Not 100 cycles. 1 cycle.
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A $1000 primary battery for a $500 flashlight? :roll:
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The military has single primary cells that cost $30k and up. Missile guidance/control primary cells that last 10's of years in awful temperature conditions with ~100% reliability.

Also, if a $1,000 primary cell in a $500 flashlight gives a SEAL an advantage in a tactical situation, or the lighter weight enables him to have better stamina after hiking in 30miles or whatever, so be it. A one-time-use $1500 flashlight would be nothing compared to million dollars in training put at risk over an equipment failure in combat or whatever.
 
I thought this was interesting:
EaglePicher Technologies LLC, is working on reducing the weight of the brick-size disposable batteries that soldiers use to power communication devices. The company has introduced a lithium-carbon monofluoride battery that was designed specifically for military radios. These batteries are “considered very stable compared to other lithium-based structures,”
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Guys,

The article says they hosted a “Battery Technology Industry Day, in an effort to find a suitable manufacturer for this new battery. "

This battery is NOT in production yet.

It is not single use either, it's part of the solar recharging effort. Instead of taking a bunch of spare batteries on patrol the guys will be able to take a handful and a roll-up solar charger with them. They already use the charger for some of the current batteries.

Since most of our patrols (today) are out there in the desert solar is a great solution.
 
REdiculous said:
lithium-carbon monofluoride
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So when the battery dies they can bust it open and brush their teeth..technology! :lol:
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:lol:
 
The Axion Power e3 Supercell is a hybrid battery/ultracapacitor in which the positive electrode consists of standard lead dioxide and the negative electrode is activated carbon, while maintaining an assembly process that is similar to lead acid. The Axion Power battery offers faster recharge times and longer cycle life on repeated deep discharges than what is possible with regular lead acid systems. This opens the door for the start-stop application in micro-hybrid cars. The lead-carbon combination of the Axion Power battery lowers the lead content on the negative plate, which results in a weight reduction of 30 percent compared to a regular lead acid. This, however, also lowers the specific energy to 15–25Wh/kg instead of 30–50Wh/kg, which a regular lead acid battery normally provides.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/new_lead_acid_systems

15-25 Wh/kg does not seem like much. It might work however, for the stop-start car market. Apparently, all cars will be turning to start-stop in the near future.
 
The tech is real and not just for primary batts. The tech was "invented" the same way humans usually "invent", by trying everything and discovering universal principles, but now we can try faster :mrgreen: 675 Wh/kg!!!

March 14, 2011 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Wildcat Discovery Technologies Discloses Fundamental Advances in Rechargeable Battery Materials Technology

Newly developed 5-volt electrolyte, cathode material boost battery performance 25-65 percent in cars, electronics, other applications

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fundamental advances in rechargeable battery technology disclosed today by Wildcat Discovery Technologies could result in battery performance improvements of 25 to 65 percent or more in electric cars, portable electronics, military, medical devices, and other demanding applications.

“This is a breakthrough discovery by our development team, which can lead to batteries capable of storing much more energy than current materials allow”

Wildcat has developed a pair of new materials that set new standards for the rechargeable battery industry, by providing unprecedented energy density of more than 675 Wh/kg while operating in full cells at 5 volts – levels beyond today’s industry standards.

Wildcat’s EM1, a novel 5V electrolyte formulation, and CM1, a new high voltage cathode material, have been shown to deliver a 25 percent improvement in gravimetric energy density, and a 61 percent improvement in volumetric energy density in the electrode, compared with existing state-of-the-art battery materials with comparable attributes. Thus far, batteries made with EM1 and CM1 have expected power and safety performance comparable to lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4), while also handling more than 100 charge/discharge cycles in full-cell testing.

“This is a breakthrough discovery by our development team, which can lead to batteries capable of storing much more energy than current materials allow,” said Wildcat CEO Mark Gresser. “When batteries hold more energy, it creates new options for design engineers - electric cars can go farther, tablets, laptops and smartphones can be smaller with no loss of runtime, soldier packs can be lighter, and implanted medical devices can last longer before the need for replacement surgery. And while our initial tests have shown a 61 percent improvement in energy density, this is just the beginning – because the EM1 electrolyte is stable at 5-volt operation, it opens the door to development of a new world of cathode materials that should bring even greater advances.”

Gresser added that the new materials are fully compatible with industry-standard anode materials.

The EM1 electrolyte’s high-voltage capability is of special interest for the automotive sector, where cell development has been restricted by the inability of existing electrolyte formulas to cycle at high voltages. Current EV systems based on low voltage cells require complex and expensive pack designs and battery management systems. EM1 enables high voltage systems which are expected to reduce required cell quantities 30-40% vs. competing materials like LFP and NMC. Fewer cells and simpler pack designs translate into substantially lower costs for auto makers.

The materials were developed using Wildcat’s proprietary high-throughput synthesis and screening platforms, which enable rapid discovery and development of advanced materials. For the CM1 cathode material alone, Wildcat’s R&D team synthesized and evaluated more than 3000 materials in just eight months; this research may have taken years using conventional methods.

Wildcat is actively seeking licensees and partners for further development and commercialization of EM1 and CM1 and successor materials. Sample quantities of up to 1 kilogram will be available as of April, 2011.

About Wildcat Discovery Technologies

Wildcat Discovery Technologies is engaged in the discovery and development of specialty materials for clean tech energy applications; including materials for batteries, gas separation, catalysis and advanced structural materials. Wildcat has developed proprietary high throughput synthesis and testing workflows for the rapid exploration of new inorganic materials. This technology enables Wildcat scientists to synthesize and evaluate thousands of materials in the time it takes most labs to evaluate only a handful.

http://www.wildcatdiscovery.com/news.html

We'll never know if EEStor is real...but keep an eye out for EM guns that don't use homopolar generators :twisted:
 
Doesn't sound like a hybrid battery/supercapacitor to me, just a regular battery with a lighter composite anode (or maybe cathode, I get these mixed up all the time).

Cameron
 
Well, they are hoping to... currently they can only prove twice the capacity of lithiom ion. I hope they can meet their predicted capacity point but only time will tell. I wonder if there are any down sides to this "simple process"? I presume as they are pointing towards the electric car market with this then cycle life isnt one of them.

Lots of new and hopefull battery techs coming onto the table in the 5 to 10x lithium ion capacity bracket... I think its just a case of the first company to meet their predection and at a decent price point is going to be Very rich.
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9491789.stm

New super strong material the thickness of cling film would take an Elephant standing on a pencil to break it and is super conductive.

According to the Nobel prize committee, a hypothetical one-metre-square hammock of perfect graphene could support a four-kilogram cat - the hammock would weigh 0.77 milligrams, less than a cat's whisker, and would be virtually invisible
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http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26965/

Lithium%20sulphur%20battery.png


Lithium batteries have become the portable powerhouses of modern society. If you own a phone, mp3 player or laptop, you will already own a lithium battery. More than likely, you will have several.

But good as they are, lithium batteries are not up to the demanding task of powering the next generation of electric vehicles. They just don't have enough juice or the ability to release it quickly over and over again.

The problem lies with the cathodes in these batteries. The specific capacities of the anode materials in lithium batteries are 370 mAh/g for graphite and 4200 mAh/g for silicon. By contrast, the cathode specific capacities are 170 mAh/g for LiFePO4 and only 150mAh/g for layered oxides.

So the way forward is clear: find a way to improve the cathode's specific capacity while maintaining all the other characteristics that batteries require, such as a decent energy efficiency and a good cycle life.

Today, Hailiang Wang and buddies at Stanford University say they've achieved a significant step towards this goal using sulphur as the cathode material of choice.

Chemists have known for many years that sulphur has potential: it has a theoretical specific capacity of 1672 mAh/g. But it also has a number of disadvantages, not least of these is the fact that sulphur is a poor conductor. On top of this, polysulphides tend to dissolve and wash away in many electrolytes while sulphur tends to swell during the discharge cycle causing it to crumble.

But Wang and co say they've largely overcome these problems using a few clever nanoengineering techniques to improve the performance. Their trick is to create submicron sulphur particles and coat them in a kind of plastic called polyethyleneglycol or PEG. This traps polysulphides and prevents them from washing away.

Next, Wang and co wrap the coated sulphur particles in a graphene cage. The interaction between carbon and sulphur renders the particles electrically conducting and also supports the particles as they swell and shrink during each charging cycle.

The result is a cathode that retains a specific capacity of more than 600 mAh/g over 100 charging cycles.

That's impressive. Such a cathode would immediately lead to rechargeable lithium batteries with a much higher energy density than is possible today. "It is worth noting that the graphene-sulfur composite could be coupled with silicon based anode materials for rechargeable batteries with significantly higher energy density than currently possible," say Wang and co

But there is more work ahead. Even though the material maintains a high specific capacity over 100 cycles, Wang and co say the capacity drops by 15 per cent in the process.

So they will be hoping, and indeed expecting, to improve on this as they further optimise the material.

The next step then is to create a working battery out of this stuff. Wang and co say they plan to couple it to a pre-lithiated silicon based anode to achieve this.

If it all works out (and that's a significant 'if'). your next car could be powered by Li-S batteries.

Ref:arxiv.org/abs/1107.0109: Graphene-Wrapped Sulfur Particles as a Rechargeable Lithium-Sulfur-Battery Cathode Material with High Capacity and Cycling Stability
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Do you ever get the feeling that people who write these know nothing about these things?
 
http://www.eco-business.com/news/graphite-and-water-the-battery-of-the-future/
Graphite and water: The battery of the future
Published : Monday, July 18th, 2011
By : Environmental Protection

A combination of two ordinary materials – graphite and water – could produce energy storage systems that perform on par with lithium ion batteries, but recharge in a matter of seconds and have an almost indefinite lifespan.

Dr. Dan Li, of the Monash University Department of Materials Engineering, and his research team have been working with a material called graphene, which could form the basis of the next generation of ultrafast energy storage systems.

“Once we can properly manipulate this material, your iPhone, for example, could charge in a few seconds, or possibly faster.” Dr. Li said.

Graphene is the result of breaking down graphite, a cheap, readily available material commonly used in pencils, into layers one atom thick. In this form, it has remarkable properties.

Graphene is strong, chemically stable, an excellent conductor of electricity and, importantly, has an extremely high surface area.

Dr. Li said these qualities make graphene highly suitable for energy storage applications.

“The reason graphene isn’t being used everywhere is that these very thin sheets, when stacked into a usable macrostructure, immediately bond together, reforming graphite. When graphene restacks, most of the surface area is lost and it doesn’t behave like graphene anymore.”

Now, Dr. Li and his team have discovered the key to maintaining the remarkable properties of separate graphene sheets: water. Keeping graphene moist – in gel form – provides repulsive forces between the sheets and prevents re-stacking, making it ready for real-world application.

“The technique is very simple and can easily be scaled up. When we discovered it, we thought it was unbelievable. We’re taking two basic, inexpensive materials – water and graphite – and making this new nanomaterial with amazing properties,” said Dr. Li.

When used in energy devices, graphene gel significantly outperforms current carbon-based technology, both in terms of the amount of charge stored and how fast the charges can be delivered.

Dr. Li said the benefits of developing this new nanotechnology extend beyond consumer electronics.

“High-speed, reliable and cost-effective energy storage systems are critical for the future viability of electricity from renewable resources. These systems are also the key to large-scale adoption of electrical vehicles.

“Graphene gel is also showing promise for use in water purification membranes, biomedical devices and sensors.”
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Think a bit how technology has progressed just in my lifetime in other things, and you get an idea how big the leap we are going to make in the next 50 years.
Even the big oil conspiracy won't be able to stop any of it.

What is certain though, is what we predict now will be completely different from what we think. Stuff will come along that is a complete game changer. Wasn't that long ago a cell phone smaller than a brick was amazing. Now it's amazing if your phone isn't internet connected. All because of the demand for it. Once the demand is there for better batteries, they will come. Right now though, the demand is for cell phone size stuff. :D
 
What will the kids write with? The horror...
 
dogman said:
Think a bit how technology has progressed just in my lifetime in other things, and you get an idea how big the leap we are going to make in the next 50 years.
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Technology is self perpetuating. What I mean by that is, the more advanced technology we have at our disposal the faster we are able to come up with better technologies. Just look at what has come about in the past 100 years compared to technology of the previous centuries. I see great things in the next 100 years. Least one can hope.
 
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