Researchers planned a flexible lithium-ion battery, even in the cut, submerged, simulated ballistic impact and other extreme conditions, the battery can work properly, and now, the battery will not catch fire.
The electrolyte of lithium-ion batteries is flammable, so it is easy to produce catastrophic fires and explosions because of the danger, the most representative event when the Samsung Galaxy Note7 cell phone was banned from being used on aircraft, and the troops of various countries have explicitly banned sailors from using e-cigarettes on ships and submarines to prevent possible dangers.
Recently, in the journal Chemical Communications, a research team led by Konstantinos Gerasopoulos of APL Research and Exploration Development announced the discovery that a new type of water-in-salt (WiS) and water-in-bisalt (WiBS) electrolytes, when combined with a polymer matrix, can reduce the activity of water , increasing the energy of the battery and extending its life cycle, along with eliminating the flammable, toxic, and highly reactive solvents now found in lithium-ion batteries. Researchers have shown that the electrolyte is a safe and robust substitute.
And as such batteries have increasingly become the energy storage of choice for applications such as portable electronics, electric cars and grid storage, the ability to improve their safety will mark a serious shift in the way lithium-ion batteries are produced and used.
APL senior research scientist and principal investigator Gerasopoulos said: "From cell phones to cars, lithium-ion batteries have become a common part of everyday life, and continuing to improve their safety is essential to further promote energy storage technology. Since the early 1990s, when lithium-ion batteries were commercialized, none of their shape factors have changed much, and we are still using the same cylindrical or diamond-shaped cells, in which the liquid electrolyte and the required hermetic packaging are strongly associated with such shapes."
The scientists demonstrated that the UV curing process and the integration of WiBS in the polymer could improve the retention of free water, which would be coordinated by the polymer, and could then improve its electrochemical stability. The researchers stated, "We demonstrate for the first time that low-cost anode nanoscale lithium titanate (Li4Ti5O12, LTO), which is now widely used in the market, can be used in aqueous polymer lithium-ion batteries and can be reliably cycled for 100 cycles."
In the new study, the team overcame the constraints of the liquid WiBS electrolyte. Because of the presence of water, liquid WiBS electrolytes are inherently safe, but they have limited energy and are not compatible with most commercial anode materials. The researchers developed "stable, WiBS-based aqueous gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs). In the presence of WiBS, the researchers polymerized water-soluble acrylates and then made such electrolytes through UV mediation."
Gerasopoulos said, "The first generation of flexible cells were not as dimensionally stable as the cells we are making now. The UV-curable polymer we developed is a self-contained, mechanically strong film, similar to a contact lens. Such batteries can work continuously for several days even when fully exposed to air. And they can be burned, cut open, or perhaps otherwise stressed, and they will still work."
APL science program director Jeff Maranchi said, "Our team is continually improving the safety and performance of flexible lithium-ion batteries, and we expect to be able to turn this new research into a prototype within a year."
Welcome to visit our company website: www.manlybattery.com. If you have any interests in batteries, please feel free to contact us: info@manlybattery.com
