EJ Taylor, ECS Treasurer and Chief Technical Officer at Faraday Technology, recently ran across this article from The Economist discussing an accidental discovery that could yield big results.
Materials scientists Wang Changan of Tsinghua University and Li Ju of MIT may have unintentionally found the answer to developing a battery that can last up to four times longer than the current generation.
Initially, the scientists were simply researching nanoparticles made of aluminum. While these tiny particles are good conductors of electricity, they become less efficient when exposed to air. When air hits these tiny particles, a coating of an oxide film begins to develop, greatly affecting the performance. The research the two scientists were working on was not to create a better battery, but rather to eliminate the oxide that coats the particles.
This from The Economist:
Their method was to soak the particles in a mixture of sulphuric acid and titanium oxysulphate. This replaces the aluminium oxide with titanium oxide, which is more conductive. However, they accidentally left one batch of particles in the acidic mixture for several hours longer than they meant to. As a result, though shells of titanium dioxide did form on them as expected, acid had time to leak through these shells and dissolve away some of the aluminium within. The consequence was nanoparticles that consisted of a titanium dioxide outer layer surrounding a loose kernel of aluminium.
By applying electrodes made of their nanoparticles to a lithium-ion battery, the scientists were able to elude some of the more pressing issues the battery faces—including the disturbance and shape-shifting of the electrode surface.
If the researchers are able to industrialize the process of making these nanoparticles, li-ion batteries could be seeing a much longer life.
Want to learn more about the future of battery technology? Register for our 228th ECS Meeting, where you can get all of the latest research in the battery domain at our Batteries and Energy Storage symposium!
