“You’re not going to solve the energy problem by separating paper and plastic. We need to transition out of our dependency on fossil fuels and into renewables. As a society, it is really up to us to change.”

ECS Fellow Héctor D. Abruña recently spoke on the importance of developing better batteries to change the energy landscape at a Charter Day Weekend lecture at Cornell University.

The energy infrastructure as it exists today cannot maintain in its current form in the years to come. The United Nations expects the world’s population to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Compare this to the current 7.2 billion population and the current issues with the energy infrastructure and the need for change becomes quite apparent.

Fortunately, Abruña and scientists like him are working to move us toward a more energy efficient and sustainable future through developments in fuel cells and batteries, which will power energy efficient and environmentally safe cars, as well as reshape the energy infrastructure itself.

“If we have any hope of solving the energy problems, we need better energy conversion and storage,” said Abruña.

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Chemical phase map showing how the electrochemical discharge of iron fluoride microwires proceeded from 0 percent discharge (left), to 50 percent (middle), to 95 percent.
Source: AZO Materials

ECS student member Linsen Li, along with former member Song Jin, have recently completed the first part of their study focusing on the powerful potential of iron fluoride in lithium-ion batteries, which can improve energy storage.

“In the past, we weren’t able to truly understand what is happening to iron fluoride during battery reactions because other battery components were getting in the way of getting a precise image,” said Linsen Li, graduate student and research assistant at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

This development will likely impact energy storage and could, in the future, advance large-scale renewable energy storage technologies if the researchers can maximize the cycling performance and efficiency of the low-cost fluoride lithium-ion battery materials.

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ECS member Shumin Fang was a contributor in a development that could dramatically improve the efficiency of batteries and fuel cells.
Image: Nature Communications

Sometimes the tiniest things could have the biggest impact—especially when it comes to battery technology.

New research from a collaborative team of engineers from Clemson University and the University of South Carolina developed a new material that could boost batteries’ power and help power plants.

ECS student member Shumin Fang of the University of South Carolina was a collaborator on the study. (Take a look at his paper on solid oxide fuel cells.)

The new material acts as a superhighway for ions, allowing for more powerful batteries and boosting the general efficiency of energy conversion.

Because batteries and fuel cells are limited by how fast ions can pass through the electrolyte, engineers must find a mix of electrolyte ingredients that allows for fast movement. This study proposes the answer to this in gadolinium doped ceria.

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A research team from Standford University has developed a high-performance aluminum battery.
Image: YouTube/Stanford University

Researchers have been attempting to make a commercially viable aluminum-ion battery for years. Now, a team from Stanford University may have developed just the thing to outpace widely used lithium-ion and alkaline batteries.

The new aluminum-ion battery demonstrates high performance, a fast charging time, long-lasting cycles, and is of low cost to produce.

“We have developed a rechargeable aluminum battery that may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames,” said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford.

The researchers were able to achieve this novel battery by applying graphite as the cathode material.

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The hybrid supercapacitor can store large amounts of energy, recharge quickly, and last for more than 10,000 recharge cycles.
Image: UCLA

Researchers from UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) have developed a new generation of supercapacitors that not only emphasizes the best inherent properties of the supercapacitor itself, but also combines it with some of the best qualities of batteries to make a new energy storage medium.

The new supercapacitor is paper-thin and has an extremely fast recharge time. Additionally, it can last more than 10,000 recharge cycles.

Researchers believe this new development will yield real-world potential to address energy issues and improve personal electronics.

“The microsupercapacitor is a new evolving configuration, a very small rechargeable power source with a much higher capacity than previous lithium thin-film microbatteries,” said Maher El-Kady, co-author of the study and postdoctoral scholar.

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The electric car industry is on the rise, but battery performance for these vehicles is still not where it needs to be to implement wide-scale usage. To address this issue, researchers from Dalhousie University have produced a ternary blend of electrolyte additives to improve the performance of the li-ion cell.

An open access paper recently published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society (JES) details a novel development in electrolyte additives that, once applied to the li-ion cell, demonstrate a very high charge-discharge capacity.

The team began their study by investigating the performance of NMC pouch cells and electrolytes with various sulfur or phosphorus electrolyte additives.

They concluded that the new additive will improve the life cycle performance of the li-ion battery, as well as improve upon its safety.

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The Electrochemical Society’s Vilas Pol has developed a new process to turn simple packing peanuts into energy-storing battery components.

Pol, an associate professor at Purdue University and active member of ECS, has thoroughly succeeded in turning one person’s trash into another person’s high-tech treasure. He and his team from Purdue University have developed a system that turns the puffy packing peanuts into nanoparticles and microsheets perfect for rechargeable batteries. Pol’s new generation of battery could even outperform the ones we currently use.

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The integration of silk into the lithium-ion battery allowed the battery to work for over 10,000 cycles with only a nine percent loss in stability.
Image: ACS Nano

The words “lithium-ion” and “battery” have become almost synonymous recently. While the li-ion battery is used in a multitude of applications, it still does not have a long life without a recharge.

Now, researchers have developed an environmentally friendly way to boost the performance of the li-ion battery by focusing on a material derived from silk.

In the li-ion battery, carbon is the key component for storage. In most situations, graphite takes that role – but it has limited energy capacity. In order to improve the performance of the li-ion battery, researchers looked to replace graphite with a material developed using a sustainable source.

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Ningde Amperex Technology Ltd. (ATL, China) is announcing a funding opportunity for researchers actively engaged in rechargeable lithium battery technologies. They are offering $100,000-$500,000 to selected projects addressing current problems associated with lithium metal anodes and proposing viable solutions for the commercialization of long-life, high-performance lithium metal secondary batteries for high energy density applications.

The steep demand for improved rechargeable batteries for use in consumer electronics and electric vehicles is driving the search for new battery electrode materials that will achieve higher energy densities. This funding opportunity seeks to develop scalable technologies for improving the performance of lithium metal anodes.

Please submit technical proposals along with a budget justification, confidentiality disclaimer and a cover page identifying the principle investigator, contact information, affiliations, project duration, total funding requested and submission date to Dr. KaiFu Zhong.

The deadline for submissions is July 31, 2015.

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The ECS Battery Division is now accepting award nominations.

Please help recognize outstanding contributions of The Electrochemical Society members to the science and technology of primary and secondary batteries and fuel cells through the Battery Division Awards Program.

Nominations are now being accepted for:

• Battery Division Research Award
• Battery Division Technology Award
• Battery Division Student Research Award

These annual awards have been established by the Division to encourage excellence in battery and fuel cell R&D, recognize promising young engineers and scientists and encourage their publication in the publications of the Electrochemical Society.

The deadline for nominations is March 30, 2015.

Before applying, please review the award rules and complete the appropriate form.

I strongly encourage you to submit your nominations. Thank you.

With my best regards,

Robert Kostecki
ECS Battery Division, Chair