Not all “breakthroughs” pan out, but as we continue to read stories like this, it does not seem farfetched to say that the battery technologies we have today will not be those we’re looking at in 2025 or 2030.
Charged: The Electric Vehicles Magazine:
Researchers from the University of Waterloo and GM’s Global Research and Development Center have developed a new silicon-based anode material that they say could enable batteries with almost 10 times more energy density than today’s state of the art.
In “Evidence of covalent synergy in silicon–sulfur–graphene yielding highly efficient and long-life lithium-ion batteries,” published in Nature Communications, the team reports that the new electrode material shows superior reversible capacity, high coulombic efficiency, and high aerial capacity.
“Graphite has long been used to build the negative electrodes in lithium-ion batteries,” said Professor Zhongwei Chen, leader of the Waterloo team. “But as batteries improve, graphite is slowly becoming a performance bottleneck because of the limited amount of energy that it can store.”
Silicon is a strong candidate to replace graphite, but it tends to undergo significant expansion and contraction with each charge cycle, which causes the material to crack. To overcome this problem, Professor Chen’s team developed a flash heat treatment for fabricated silicon-based lithium-ion electrodes that minimizes volume expansion.
“The economical flash heat treatment creates uniquely structured silicon anode materials that deliver extended cycle life to more than 2,000 cycles with increased energy capacity of the battery,” said Professor Chen.
Chen plans to commercialize this technology, and expects to see new batteries on the market within the next year.
All very good. Did you see the “Portobello LiIon battery” innovation? No joke.
Anyway, I’ve been seeing battery ‘breakthrough”s for years and yet making a commercial reality seems to be tough.
In the lab, it only has to perform and be reproducible.
In the real world, it has to be safe, economical and reliable.
Yes, time will tell whether this is a real “breakthrough” or another Solar Roadway scheme designed by marketers.
In the meantime, remember to “seek medical attention for any erection lasting over four hours”, perhaps the best marketing line of all time.
I used to know some people at the University of Waterloo – it’s a seriously good school although their longstanding strength has more been EE and Comp Sci.
I’d be very disappointed if this was hype talk. Let’s see if they make it to market quicker than Ryden’s “dual carbon” battery, whatever the hell that means.
Indeed, I think safety is what stops much new battery tech. Each iteration packs more and more energy into a small package, enabling them to fail rather spectacularly. The Li-Poly batteries in their first generation had a number of issues, but I believe they have improved that quite a bit now – even though mismanagement can still make them hazardous.
I am quite sure 25 years down the road we have something better although personally I feel batteries are pretty good already (driving a Nissan Leaf EV on a regular basis).