The article Lithium-air battery brings electric cars within range of combustion engines first appeared in the online magazine BASIC thinking. With our newsletter UPDATE you can start the day well informed every morning.
Japanese researchers have developed a lithium-air battery with a capacity of around one watt hour. With this high performance and a longer service life, this battery could bring electric ranges closer to that of combustion engines in the future.
Lithium-ion batteries are currently considered the standard in electromobility. They are comparatively safe and offer an efficient energy storage system. Even at high power densities, they allow thousands of charging cycles.
But the technology is now reaching its limits as the energy density increases only slowly, which in turn limits the range and keeps the battery weight high. Dependencies on raw materials, thermal risks such as overheating and the resulting complex cooling also pose challenges in electromobility.
For these reasons, researchers around the world are working on alternatives to electromobility. Increasing requirements for range, charging speed, security and resource efficiency can only be met to a limited extent with current technology.
Researchers from Japan have now… developed a lithium-air batterywhich could replace lithium-ion batteries as the standard in electromobility in the future. According to the researchers, lithium-air batteries are considered the “ultimate rechargeable batteries”.
Can electric cars with lithium-air batteries achieve the range of combustion engines?
The scientists from the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) were able to at their work eliminate three weak points of previous lithium-air batteries. This made it possible to increase performance, service life and stability.
The lithium-air battery developed by the researchers uses oxygen from the air. This flows evenly into the battery through newly arranged channels, which stabilized the chemical reactions. This enabled the researchers to significantly increase the energy density of the battery.
Heat treatment of the electrode also contributed to the successful test run of the battery. The researchers heated the carbon it contained to around 2,100 degrees Celsius. The result is a more durable structure that gives the battery more stability.
Research is still in its early stages
The researchers used a prototype stacked lithium-air battery for their tests. This contained electrodes measuring four by four centimeters and could achieve a capacity of up to one watt hour.
The prototype was able to go through 19 charging and discharging cycles without any losses. Only then did the system’s performance decline. For the researchers, this represents “remarkable stability for this early development phase.”
The prototype cell was able to achieve an energy density of 130 watt hours per kilogram. This is almost double compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries.
The researchers assume that energy densities of more than 700 watt hours per kilogram would be possible with this technology in the future. This means that electric cars could theoretically come close to the range of combustion engines.
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As a Tech Industry expert, I am incredibly excited about the potential of lithium-air batteries to revolutionize the electric vehicle market. These batteries have the potential to significantly increase the range of electric cars, bringing them on par with traditional combustion engine vehicles.
The ability to travel longer distances on a single charge will address one of the major concerns that consumers have when considering purchasing an electric vehicle. It will also help to accelerate the adoption of electric cars, as range anxiety will become less of a barrier for potential buyers.
Lithium-air batteries also have the potential to be more energy-dense, lighter, and cheaper than current lithium-ion batteries, making them a highly attractive option for electric vehicle manufacturers. This could lead to significant advancements in the performance and affordability of electric cars, further driving their popularity.
Overall, I believe that the development of lithium-air batteries has the potential to be a game-changer for the electric vehicle industry. It is an exciting time for innovation in this space, and I look forward to seeing how this technology will continue to evolve and shape the future of transportation.
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