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MIT adds tunnels to Li-ion batteries, now charge in mere seconds
Lithium ion batteries are in all kinds of consumer gadgetry, from digital cameras to video game controllers. They're also in cars, but the time it takes to charge an electric automobile — several hours at least — hasn't really swayed folks who spend ten minutes at a pump.
MIT has a new revamped version of the Li-ion batteries we know and love that could change all that. It uses the same lithium iron material, but the researchers have bored tunnels through the surface, giving lithium ions an expressway of sorts. This allows the batteries to be charged in a matter of seconds, and release energy just as fast. That doesn't mean that your battery will fizzle out in the blink of an eye — instead, they're more powerful and can handle the kind of strain an electric automobile, such as the Chevy Volt pictured above, demands. With the new batteries, you could charge your car just as fast as it'd take to fill it up with gas.
The new holy batteries also don't degrade as quickly as their tunnel-less cousins. Prototypes have already been made, and the team says that we could see the new batteries in products in as little as two to three years.
Via TG Daily
By alzubrik@yahoo.com at 8:56 AM ON 03/12/09
FYI From Dave.
By Dave T at 12:08 PM ON 03/12/09
Typo on line with "lithium iron". Spell check will never replace the human element of proofreading.
By theBike at 12:28 PM ON 03/12/09
It all comes down to price in order to evaluate the effect of these new batteries. So far, when used to build a battery-only EV (unlike the Volt, where speed of recharging isn't much of an issue)
the cost of the batteries still looks prohibitive at $30,000 plus. perhaps some high end niche cars ala Teslas or Fiskers. Until we see prices and lifespans and ratio of kilowathour storage versus capacity, we can't say very much about the ability of these batteries to usher in an era of practical battery-only electrics.
By Mike at 1:56 PM ON 03/12/09
3 years of R&D?!?!?!...Get it together Wiz Kidz...You got 3 month to get it right. Now that you spilled the beans, Japan has just picked up the baton and are now running with it.
Oh...and it better not cost any more than a pack of 9vdc Duracells that I can pick up at Walgreens this afternoon!
By BoxerFanatic at 2:37 PM ON 03/12/09
That kind of makes sense...
Electric charge travels over the surface of things, not nearly as easily going through them. The electrical charge capacitance probably gets drawn in from the surface into the interior of the chemical cell.
Tunnels increase surface area, and provide surface access into the interior of the cell.
The C-rating of these batteries (rate of how many amps or milli-amps per hour the battery can discharge) will skyrocket if the surface area allows surface flow of electrons into and out-of the interior of the battery.
The charging rate is directly related to the discharge rate, and most lithium batteries like to stay near 1 times C, although some are force-charged faster, up to 3 or 4 times C. Force-charging also depletes the batteries faster by damaging the chemicals.
Instead of charging at multiples of the batteries discharge rate, increasing the discharge rate is fantastic, because it also affects charging rate...
I wonder if they can make the leap from a solid-block cell, to a perforated cell, like this describes, to an open-celled sturdy foam structure, with even more surface area, with a modest amount of physical growth due to inert air-space, (can't be oxygen, because lithium oxidizes explosively.) or some sort of liquid saturated foam, to allow electrons to flow throughout the cell almost instantaneously, with much less thickness per square inch of surface area.
This is very promising stuff.
One step closer to my turboshaft jet/electric hybrid-drive supercar idea. :D
By nexus73 at 9:21 PM ON 03/12/09
There was an article a few months back about a new kind of fuel cell produced by MIT that would make it possible to take a home off the grid. The combination of the new fuel cell tech and battery tech would mean EV's with extremely long range. Imagine putting such a system in a small motorhome. You go where you want to go for essentially free.
Instead of building houses or apartment/condo units, you have people take their home wherever they wish to work or play. The employee parking lot becomes an RV park so to speak. Less commuting and less stress on the roadway system.
Have a family member or friend in need of being watched over at a hospital? Your self-sufficient home on wheels is there and no need to plug into anything.
Add a satellite dish that works in mobile apps and you have the full spectrum of communications wherever you go.
The downside of today's RV's is the huge fuel costs and need to hook up. Eliminate those factors and watch for a big jump in mobile living.
This is what I see coming out of combining these two techs from MIT in terms of how they will affect the way we live day-to-day. in "Back To The Future" it is said that where we're going we won't need roads. How much of a twist would it be to say we won't need houses?
Whether one sees this line of development occuring or not, I do find it Priority One to get MIT's developments off the ground ASAP and that a focused application of dollars going to economic stimulus will have the highest rate of return when invested in tech. You want to be liberated from OPEC, mortgages, nuclear power and megasized organizations, you adopt techs that liberate the individual from as many boat anchors as possible and see what those more empowered individuals can deliver back.
Adding more holes to lithium ion batteries should be child's play after all...LOL!
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nexus73:
There was an article a few months back about a new kind of fuel cell produced by MIT that would make it possible to...More »