A new electrolyte that can greatly improve lithium batteries

Batteries are the “weakest” component of electric cars and other devices, as it is the limitation of their autonomy. With more capable batteries, cars could run longer.

So everyone is doing intensive research to improve the capacity of electric batteries. Today the most used and efficient are lithium-ion, and we all have on our phones and other devices.

In a study published last June in the journal Nature Energy, researchers at Stanford University indicate that they have found a new electrolyte that greatly improves the performance of lithium metal batteries.

Lithium ion batteries have a positive electrode that contains lithium and a negative electrode that contains graphite, and the electrons circulate between them thanks to an electrolyte.

In lithium metal batteries the positive electrode is similar, but the negative electrode is made of lithium (rather than graphite); and until now these batteries were damaged because microstructures formed on the lithium anode called “dendrites”.

Researchers have been trying to avoid these dendrites for dozens of years, which is what they say they have achieved at Stanford with a new electrolyte.

In the photo you can see the new electrolyte. On the left is the electrolyte from lithium ion batteries, and on the right (darker) is from a lithium metal battery; which also has the characteristic of being less flammable than current ones, making it safer.

This discovery is very important because lithium metal batteries can achieve a greater capacity than current lithium ion batteries. On the order of more than double; and that means more than doubling the autonomy of the devices to which it is applied. Electric cars would get a huge boost.

In the USA the U.S. The Department of Energy is funding an investigation called Battery 500 with the objective of obtaining lithium metal batteries that are capable of generating 500 watts / h of energy for every kilo of battery.

When they started 4 years ago they were at 160, and have already exceeded 325 w / h per kilo.

Since on the other hand there are many people investigating in a field with so many economic interests, it would not be surprising that in ten years we are seeing cars with batteries that allow autonomies close to 1,000 km.

And that would already be a more than definitive step for electric cars.

It is very clear that the car of the near future will be electric. And it would be very positive if car manufacturers agreed to standardize battery sizes so that they could be easily replaced and interchangeable.

Standardization greatly reduces costs, facilitates the recovery of used batteries, the exchange of some batteries for others, etc … and we would all win.

Will they do it someday?