TELF AG analyzes a possible technological advancement in the lithium battery sector
A new family of batteries?
In the not-too-distant future, electric vehicle users could recharge their car’s battery in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. This result could be achieved thanks to a recent discovery by a team of researchers from the University of Hong Kong, who have developed a new family of lithium metal batteries capable of ensuring greater durability and an increased level of safety even at high temperatures.
Until now, rechargeable lithium metal batteries have been considered a possible alternative to traditional lithium-ion batteries—such as those used in electric vehicles or energy storage systems—but their actual use has been hindered by various unknowns relating, above all, to the duration of the battery’s life cycle.
The innovation recently discovered by researchers at the University of Hong Kong could have the potential to solve exactly these problems, and is essentially based on the use of polymer electrolytes characterized by a structure free of microcracks, which would be able to ensure excellent levels of performance (microcracks are those particular cracks that could characterize the structure of polymers, compromising sometimes some of their properties, and which are usually quite difficult to detect especially due to their microscopic size).
These characteristics would make it possible to produce batteries characterized by a high degree of safety and a certain resistance to the growth of dendrites, i.e., those thin structures that could form on the surface of metal electrodes such as lithium during battery use.
The properties of polymer structures
These polymer electrolytes, on which much of this innovation is based, are obtained thanks to a specific synthesis process through a single-step reaction and could resist temperatures of up to 100 degrees Celsius. The batteries obtained this way would also have presented a surprising electrochemical stability and good conductivity at high temperatures.
In essence, polymeric structures without microcracks would allow lithium metal batteries to function as natural energy storage systems with a prolonged cycle life and a high level of safety. According to the researchers, an innovation of this kind could have a strong impact on the rechargeable batteries sector for high-temperature performance, particularly for the use of new chemical substances capable of ensuring excellent efficiency.
One of the most evident advantages, according to some representatives of the research team, would be represented by the shortening of the time needed to recharge these storage systems, in particular thanks to the low overpotential that characterizes the polymeric structures without microcracks. Moreover, one of the most interesting aspects is also linked to the possible applications of these batteries, which would extend well beyond the electric vehicle sector. With its ability to improve the safety and life cycle of these storage systems, in fact, this technology could also be applied to other high energy density batteries, suggesting interesting application horizons in the battery sector of the future.
