By Nick
Lavars
May 01, 2022
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With a view to shortening an electric vehicle's plug-in
time, scientists have developed a battery that charges "extremely
fast" Depositphotos
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Led by researchers from the University of Science and
Technology of China, the work focuses on one of the two electrodes in a
lithium-ion battery, called the anode. This is of big interest to scientists in
the field because redesigned anodes could offer great performance benefits,
that include holding far more energy and charging up much more quickly.
One exciting possibility includes replacing the mix of
graphite and copper with pure lithium metal, hailed as a "dream
material" that could allow for up to 10 times the capacity of current
devices. Other interesting examples include introducing experimental
nanospheres into the anode to boost capacity, or doing away with the
anode altogether to make
for a smaller and cheaper battery.
The authors of this new study looked to improve on the
standard anode by designing a new porous architecture with graphite particles
of a certain size strewn throughout. The idea was to address the non-ordered
nature of today's anodes, which feature spaces that mean the batteries don't
lend themselves so well to fast charging, by using particle-level theoretical
modeling to determine the optimal arrangement.
With the ideal distribution of different sized particles
and spaces in the anode, the team also added copper nanowires and a copper
coating and used heating and cooling treatments to form their novel component.
As reported in TechXplore, this anode was incorporated into a standard
lithium-ion battery and enabled it to be recharged to 60 percent in 5.6 minutes
and to 80 percent in 11.4 minutes.
Described as an "extremely fast-charging lithium ion
battery," the scientists see the technology as a promising stepping stone
toward more desirable electric vehicles, pointing to the US Department of
Energy's "Fast Charge Goal" of 10 mile (16 km) of travel per
minute of charging.
The research was published in the journal Science
Advances.
Source: TechXplore