VIEWS on BATTERY NEWS: With a delay in posting, we look over the pile of breakthrough dejurs

Quartz to the rescue

Quartz Powder has been found to be a great additive for the electrolyte of lithium-sulfur batteries.

A problem with the Li-S chemistry is the loss of capacity when a battery made from these materials cycles. This is caused by polysulfides, which don't work in a battery, start taking up space on an electrode instead of working materials.

To solve this problem, researchers added quartz to the electrolyte because it binds with the polysulfides which keep them off the electrode.

This effect was found by happenstance when trying to study what is happing in this kind of cell. When they tried to x-ray the offending material, the polysulfides, they had to ground them so the x-rays could "see" them because the x-rays didn't work in a liquid. They used glass for this but found the improvement in overall performance was significant enough to push this idea as far as they could - thus quartz powder which is a large component of glass and has a great surface area.

If it can be made to work, the theoretical capacity of a Li-S battery is greater than that of the Li-Ion chemistry.





Atoms with problems work better

Frustrated atoms describe mixing up matrices of differing solids in order to create surface area and paths for electron transfer inside the combined result.

The idea is to take two different materials with atoms of different sizes and combine them so the internal structure doesn't fit together in such an orderly way. Because a material that has ordered atoms doesn't allow for electrons to reach the interior easily.

The obvious consequences are greater access to many parts of a material that would normally be blocked off by other parts of the material. And these paths to all parts of a material help with electron transport so not only is there more material access, but a cell with this construction would have a greater ability to charge/discharge faster.

Nanotubes bringing the thunder

Carbon nanotubes are a really great solution looking for problems to fix. And in battery labs, carbon nanotubes are being scrutinized closely because they continue to amaze researchers with how well they expose carbon to be used in just exactly the ways needed for good battery performance.

The latest from James Tour et al use the properties of carbon nanotubes coated with lithium with such a high surface area and low density that the anode can reach near the theoretical maximum of energy density!

The cathode will have to be brought up to speed to handing this high-performing anode, but take a look at the next story...



Plating for layers

Thin layers, like a coating of lithium just mentioned, is a big part of getting great performance out of batteries. But making thin and strong layers isn't always easy.

There is a way to make a thin layer that isn't very hard depending on the materials, and that is electroplating.

Electroplating is a way to get a coating on a substrate by drawing a material onto the substrate with an electrical charge. It doesn't work with every material so that is the trick to making it work for cells of the future.

This plating is being used on the anode side of a lithium battery and it potentially increases capacity and durability.

Russia Influenced our Blog! What happened next surprised us!

This blog, despite the hiatus over the last few weeks, is still keen to bring you the news and views of the battery world. Curiously, it is served outside the US as much as inside the US. And Russian is the most translated version delivered to the non-English speaking world.

Why to people in Russia want to read about the fascinating goings on about batteries? Could it be because of the great engineering minds that dwell in those parts? Could it be that batteries are seen as a solution for more problems by more people there?

I'm not sure. Perhaps some of you in Russia could comment. Go ahead and respond in Cyrillic and I'll just push the handy "translate this" button I have here in Chrome, and I hope the online translator will make sense when I reply.

I know just a little about Russia having traveled there 3 times. 1 time for business, 2 times for pleasure. And there are some truly wonderful people one cannot help but meet if you spend some time anywhere in the country. And I noticed that even though I didn't run into a lot of engineers, everyone had an analytical mind.

Take for instance the babushka (babule?) I stayed with on one trip. She was a medical doctor by learning and had a long career. She was retired in her 70's and receiving a pension. The pension she received was the full amount of rubles that were promised to her.

Unfortunately with inflation that entire payment was only a few dollars per month. She wasn't a bitter person, but she supplemented her income by renting her storage room (big closet?) to people like me. And she did doctoring over the threshold.

Doctoring over the threshold was a little trick she understood because if someone came inside her apartment for medical advice, she could be breaking state laws. However, if they stayed out of the house while she talked about their case, then she had some protection if someone told the authorities that she was helping people outside the system.

I hope she is still doing what she loves - helping people and using her very sharp mind.

And that's what I experience in the little time I was there. People always thinking. It's what we will make solar and wind work because there is no getting around the problem of energy storage. There have already been a number of breakthroughs come out of Russia.

And let's not forget that Russia sits on vast unexplored areas that could hold a great deal of raw materials for the unique use in batteries. Not only are they ramping up production in known deposits, but other rare earths will be needed and many areas have yet to be checked.

So jump on in. The water's fine. Join us in the US to tackle the energy storage problem. It may not be the catalyst to produce world peace, but it will be a great good for everyone in the world.