U.S. overcomes battery difficulties that hinder the marketization of electric vehicles

The traditional battery pack contains several hundred batteries. Each cell contains a stack of numerous thin and thin solid electrodes. The electrodes are fitted with current collectors, separated from each other by a plastic film. To increase energy storage, more layers of electrode material need to be added, which in turn requires more layers of metal foil and plastic film. The 24M company's design makes it possible to increase energy storage without the need for additional foils and plastic films. The key difference is that the electrode is not a solid film in the battery, but the alkali-like material is stored in the container, one is a positive electrode material, and the other is a negative electrode. 24M plans to significantly reduce ineffective materials in the battery. It is estimated that the battery in this new paper can achieve almost twice the energy density, which is compared to today's car battery pack. Batteries have higher energy densities and will be smaller and cheaper, which means that electric and hybrid cars will be cheaper.

Last year, A123 Systems, a battery start-up company, opened another company, 24M (24M), to develop a new type of battery that would enable electric vehicles to go further and cost less. A research paper is now published in Advanced Energy Materials, which discloses preliminary details of how the battery works. It also overcomes the challenge of getting batteries to market. There is a big problem. Lithium-ion batteries are used in electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Only about 25% of the battery volume is placed in energy-storing materials. The rest is composed of ineffective materials such as packaging, conductive foil and glue, which makes the battery bulky and takes up a considerable part of the cost. This material is pumped from the container into small equipment, and the channels they pass through are carved into metal blocks. When this happens, ions move from one electrode to the other, also through the same kind of membrane material that is used for conventional cells. The electrons leave the material and enter the external circuit. In this design, increasing the energy storage is as simple as increasing the size of the storage container. This device allows the electrodes to interact and maintain the same size. This design also does not require the connection of hundreds of batteries for sufficient energy storage. This new battery is similar to something called a flow battery, in which two electrolytes are pumped through each other. However, conventional flow batteries are about 10 times larger than this new design because they use dilute energy storage solutions, which make them unrealistic for automobiles. How researchers overcame the biggest design challenge: extracting charge from the soda slag. In ordinary lithium-ion batteries, the electron transfer is to skip the connected conductive particles in the solid electrode until they reach the current collector. In new batteries, electrons do not flow through the electrolyte.