Researchers from McGill University and Université du Québec à Montreal (UQAM) have found a new approach to making inexpensive batteries that can not only hold large amounts of charge but also recharge quickly.
The research focuses on improving lithium ion batteries, rechargeable cells that are used in electric vehicles, power tools, smartphones and other devices. These types of batteries are used extensively in the electrification of transport (such as electric cars) sector due to their high energy density, low self-discharge and long cycle life.
Conventional lithium-ion batteries consist of single or multiple lithium-ion cells, along with a protective circuit board. Yet despite the commonality of these batteries, progress with technology is partly hampered by a relatively slow charging time. New research has signalled a new way forward.
It is hoped from the research that energy sector manufacturers will be able to make batteries that can be charged faster. This is not only with vehicles for lithium-ion batteries have come to dominate more than 90 per cent of the global solar grid market.
To understand how a battery performs, researchers needed to see what was going on inside different batteries while they were being used. The was achieved through the use of the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron at the University of Saskatchewan (USask).
CLS is a national research facility of the University of Saskatchewan and one of the largest science projects in Canada’s history. This technology offers the bright, intense x-ray light required to peer into a working battery.
Lithium ion batteries can be made of a combination of different materials, which researchers tweak to get the performance they want.
This allowed the researchers to combine two materials and use the benefits of both of them. This was part of the hunt for one material that is capable of fast charging and another one that is capable of having a huge capacity.
The outcome was that the researchers produced a battery by mixing a known fast-charging material with a high-capacity one and experimented with different ways to combine them. This was made possible through the CLS, with the technology enabling the scientists to image the lithium ions–so that they could monitor the battery chemistry while it was being charged.
This demonstrated that a found that a layered, sandwich-like approach worked best since the lithium ion is able to move more efficiently through the cell. The findings appear in the journal ChemElectroChem. The paper is titled “Exploring the Synergistic Effects of Dual-Layer Electrodes for High Power Li-Ion Batteries.”
