Super durable battery for electric cars running more than 600km per charge

Researchers at Cambridge University successfully built a lithium-oxygen battery, which can be charged 2,000 times, each time with enough energy for electric cars to run hundreds of kilometers.

Successfully manufactured durable battery for electric cars

According to the Telegraph, the new lithium-air battery manufacturing technology, also known as Li-O ₂ , can be used to produce batteries with a cost and weight of only a fifth compared to current electric car batteries, using Using renewable energy such as solar energy or wind power, replacing gasoline and diesel vehicles that pollute in the future.

The most common type of rechargeable battery is lithium - ion, commonly used in laptops, smartphones or electric cars. It is light but low energy storage, the battery capacity is also gradually reduced according to the number of charging times.

Laboratory battery prototype.(Photo: Tao Liu, Clare Gray, Gabriella Bocchetti).

Li-O ₂ batteries are considered to be ideal for long-distance electric vehicles because oxygen is available in the air, so the battery weight will lessen this component, but lithium itself is also considered a block material. low specific amount. This means that Li-O ₂ batteries can store a lot of energy. However, previous versions of this technology were often inefficient and unstable, battery bottles were quick after several times of charging and discharging, or errors such as short circuits and explosions.

In the new study, graphene is used as a carbon electrode for batteries. Graphene is a form of carbon in which the atoms are connected to a porous structure of high porosity, which is evaluated as a metamaterial with superhard, super durable, superconducting properties.

The electrolyte is an organic solvent of dimethoxyethane , mixed with lithium iodine (LiI) salt . When ions react with oxygen at the cathode, they produce lithium hydroxide crystals (LiOH), which decompose very quickly when charging. Previous battery designs created Lithium peroxide (Li ₂ O ₂ ) , a white solid that does not dissolve and adhere to the electrode surface, making charging more difficult, and battery bottles are fast after a few charge times. In contrast, batteries with electrodes made from graphene still work well after 2,000 charges.

Diagram of operation of Li-O ₂ battery.(Photo: Nature).

The biggest difficulty is that the sample battery is developed in the laboratory, requiring the use of pure oxygen , not the oxygen available in the air . Therefore, scientists say, it will take at least another decade to bring this technology into mass production of batteries. However, they are optimistic about the future of Li-O ₂ batteries.

"Although there are many basic studies that need to be done to solve the problem of mechanical details, the results are very interesting. We have shown that there are solutions to the problems of the public. This technology, " said Professor Clare Gray, currently working at the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge. The study is published in the October 29 issue of Nature.