There’s been a battery war going on for quite some time now with companies battling it out to try and come up with the next best battery. So far various ideas have been put forward to improve or replace the current lithium-ion batteries used today, but so far, none have really stuck.
Lithium-ion batteries are used in most electronic devices made today including laptops, smartphones, and electric vehicles. Currently, the batteries anodes are mainly made from graphite or other carbon-based materials. The problem with this is because of the weight and energy density of carbon-based materials, performance is limited, hence why many manufacturers are now turning their focus to lithium metal anodes.
The idea behind lithium metal anodes is that they can potentially increase the current lithium-ion battery’s capacity by as much as 10 times, giving electric vehicles a far better range and smartphone’s battery life’s lasting much longer too. These lithium metal anodes are also cheaper and lighter than that used today. So, it looks like it’s a win-win situation for all. But, there’s more.
A team of researchers at the University of California unraveled a 40-year mystery and discovered they could stabilize battery performance, eliminate dendrite growth, and increase the lifetime of the battery by three times that of the current models just by coating it in an organic compound called methyl viologen.
Chao Wang, an adjunct assistant professor of chemistry at UC Riverside who is the lead author of the paper, said, “This has the potential t change the future. It is low cost, easily manipulated and compatible with the current lithium-ion battery industry.” The researchers are hoping their work will contribute towards the development of the next generation of batteries including lithium metal batteries and lithium-air batteries.
However, Wang did warn that although the coating will improve battery performance it won’t prevent the battery from catching fire, so there is still room for improvement there. Even so, it still seems like a very viable option compared to everything else we’ve got out there and could well become the next big thing for the battery industry.
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