New Battery Tech - Super Lion

[Arct1k]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7938001.stm

Battery that 'charges in seconds'

A new manufacturing method for lithium-ion batteries could lead to smaller, lighter batteries that can be charged in just seconds.

Batteries that discharge just as quickly would be useful for electric and hybrid cars, where a quick jolt of charge is needed for acceleration.

The approach only requires simple changes to the production process of a well-known material.

The new research is reported in the scientific journal Nature.

Because of the electronic punch that they pack, gram for gram, lithium-ion batteries are the most common rechargeable batteries found in consumer electronics, such as laptops.

However, they take a long time to charge; researchers have assumed until now that there was a speed limit on the lithium ions and electrons that pass through the batteries to form an electrochemical circuit.

Tiny holes

Gerbrand Ceder, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US, and his colleagues used a computer simulation to model the movements of ions and electrons in a variant of the standard lithium material known as lithium iron phosphate.

The simulation indicated that ions were moving at great speed.

"If transport of the lithium ions was so fast, something else had to be the problem," Professor Ceder said.

That problem turned out to be the way ions passed through the material.

They pass through minuscule tunnels, whose entrances are present at the surface of the material.

However, the team discovered that to get into these channels, the ions had to be positioned directly in front of the tunnel entrances - if they were not, they could not get through.

The solution, Ceder discovered, was to engineer the material such that it has a so-called "beltway" that guides the ions towards the tunnel entrances.

Traffic management

A prototype battery made using the new technique could be charged in less than 20 seconds - in comparison to six minutes with an untreated sample of the material.

Most commercial batteries use a material made up of lithium and cobalt, but lithium iron phosphate does not suffer from overheating - something that has affected laptop and mp3 player batteries in a number of incidents.
Hybrid cars could benefit from a quick discharge as much as a quick charge

Even though it is cheap, lithium iron phosphate has until now received little attention because lithium cobalt batteries can store slightly more charge for a given weight.

However, the researchers found that their new material does not lose its capacity to charge over time in the way that standard lithium ion batteries do.

That means that the excess material put into standard batteries to compensate for this loss over time is not necessary, leading to smaller, lighter batteries with phenomenal charging rates.

What is more, because there are relatively few changes to the standard manufacturing process, Professor Ceder believes the new battery material could make it to market within two to three years.

[What's_nitro?]

Awesome. I like the name, too! "Super Lion"

[BrianG]

Looks promising! It just bugs me to see all this "easy to implement" or "few manufacturing changes necessary" and then see it will take 2-3 YEARS to get to market. Argg! How about 2-3 months?!

[whitrzac]

lithium ion phosphat....

A123+ LiFe...

someone inproved the a123 cell finaly

[Metallover]

Originally Posted by whitrzac

lithium ion phosphat....

A123+ LiFe...

someone inproved the a123 cell finaly

That's what I thought. I wonder if the nominal volatege will be the same as a123.

[Arct1k]

Re-engineered battery material could lead to rapid recharging of many devices
Beltway for electrical energy solves long-standing problem
Elizabeth A. Thomson, News Office
March 11, 2009


MIT engineers have created a kind of beltway that allows for the rapid transit of electrical energy through a well-known battery material, an advance that could usher in smaller, lighter batteries -- for cell phones and other devices -- that could recharge in seconds rather than hours.

The work could also allow for the quick recharging of batteries in electric cars, although that particular application would be limited by the amount of power available to a homeowner through the electric grid.

The work, led by Gerbrand Ceder, the Richard P. Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, is reported in the March 12 issue of Nature. Because the material involved is not new -- the researchers have simply changed the way they make it -- Ceder believes the work could make it into the marketplace within two to three years.

State-of-the-art lithium rechargeable batteries have very high energy densities -- they are good at storing large amounts of charge. The tradeoff is that they have relatively slow power rates -- they are sluggish at gaining and discharging that energy. Consider current batteries for electric cars. "They have a lot of energy, so you can drive at 55 mph for a long time, but the power is low. You can't accelerate quickly," Ceder said.

Why the slow power rates? Traditionally, scientists have thought that the lithium ions responsible, along with electrons, for carrying charge across the battery simply move too slowly through the material.

About five years ago, however, Ceder and colleagues made a surprising discovery. Computer calculations of a well-known battery material, lithium iron phosphate, predicted that the material's lithium ions should actually be moving extremely quickly.

"If transport of the lithium ions was so fast, something else had to be the problem," Ceder said.

Further calculations showed that lithium ions can indeed move very quickly into the material but only through tunnels accessed from the surface. If a lithium ion at the surface is directly in front of a tunnel entrance, there's no problem: it proceeds efficiently into the tunnel. But if the ion isn't directly in front, it is prevented from reaching the tunnel entrance because it cannot move to access that entrance.

Ceder and Byoungwoo Kang, a graduate student in materials science and engineering, devised a way around the problem by creating a new surface structure that does allow the lithium ions to move quickly around the outside of the material, much like a beltway around a city. When an ion traveling along this beltway reaches a tunnel, it is instantly diverted into it. Kang is a coauthor of the Nature paper.

Using their new processing technique, the two went on to make a small battery that could be fully charged or discharged in 10 to 20 seconds (it takes six minutes to fully charge or discharge a cell made from the unprocessed material).

Ceder notes that further tests showed that unlike other battery materials, the new material does not degrade as much when repeatedly charged and recharged. This could lead to smaller, lighter batteries, because less material is needed for the same result.

"The ability to charge and discharge batteries in a matter of seconds rather than hours may open up new technological applications and induce lifestyle changes," Ceder and Kang conclude in their Nature paper.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers program and the Batteries for Advanced Transportation Program of the U.S. Department of Energy. It has been licensed by two companies.

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by Arct1k

...It has been licensed by two companies.

That doesn't surprise me. At the rate people are looking into alternative power sources for PEVs, I can imagine companies spending money even on a chance this is as good as it reports. When it does come to market, they'd be ahead of the game...

[Takedown]

Very interesting find. I hope they arent more expensive than normal liion or lipo's.

[lutach]

It might be a few years away, but it does sounds good. I've heard of many new types of batteries that should be coming out. It might take up to 5yrs for the technology to mature though and the powerful batteries available now will always get better too.

[whitrzac]

Originally Posted by lutach

It might be a few years away, but it does sounds good. I've heard of many new types of batteries that should be coming out. It might take up to 5yrs for the technology to mature though and the powerful batteries available now will always get better too.

2 for them to be in RC planes, another 5 for them to find there way into RC cars because ROAR wont approve them

[suicideneil]

Who gives a shite what roar says? We've been using non-roar approved lipos for years, just cant use them in roar races is all. Just look at most of the major lipo brands out there, lots and lots or plane lipos that have found their way into cars and trucks, simply because ' we could'...

[lincpimp]

I like the name "Super Lion" it is very powerful sounding. They need a big Kitty on the label, with a bubble near its mouth with "ROAR" in it. That would be super green.

[Takedown]

How about this...

[What's_nitro?]

Originally Posted by lincpimp

They need a big Kitty on the label, with a bubble near its mouth with "ROAR" in it.