New Class of Materials Could Be Used to Make Batteries That Charge Faster

DooKey

DooKey

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The eggheads at the University of Cambridge have discovered a new class of material that could help lithium batteries charge faster. The materials are known as niobium tungsten oxides and they could allow a battery to charge faster without the development of dangerous dendrites. However, before we get our hopes up too much this is strictly in the experimental stage and isn't close to actual commercial application. Regardless, this kind of research is what will eventually place electric vehicles in the same category as ICE vehicles when it comes to range and speed of refueling. Keep the research going guys! You can read their abstract here.

Most negative electrodes in current lithium-ion batteries are made of graphite, which has a high energy density, but when charged at high rates, tends to form spindly lithium metal fibres known as dendrites, which can create a short-circuit and cause the batteries to catch fire and possibly explode.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Blah blah blah..another day, another wonder material that makes massive promises that have a 99% chance of never coming to fruition.
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It takes decades to change the world overnight. These things take a long time to make their way to the market, graphene is only just showing up in consumer products and it's penetrating the market faster than plastics did.

Teehee... Penetrating...
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Blah blah blah..another day, another wonder material that makes massive promises that have a 99% chance of never coming to fruition.
Click to expand...

Yeah. There's a company that is doing something similar as they've developed a solid medium (versus the liquid of traditional batteries) that prevents dendrites so it allows for pure graphite to be used (better density versus the hybrid alloys they use to combat it). Pure graphite was the original choice, but fell to the wayside because dendrites formed so quickly.

Question is, can it be manufacturered? Does it have good endurance? Capacity? Constant Current Amperage? All of those have to align for it to be useful.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
It takes decades to change the world overnight. These things take a long time to make their way to the market, graphene is only just showing up in consumer products and it's penetrating the market faster than plastics did.

Teehee... Penetrating...
Click to expand...

I am aware of this, but the point being is that this kind of "news" pops up literally all the time and the vast majority of things never pan out. I'm a little jaded at seeing these types of things in the news as it really isn't news.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
I am aware of this, but the point being is that this kind of "news" pops up literally all the time and the vast majority of things never pan out. I'm a little jaded at seeing these types of things in the news as it really isn't news.
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Yup, I'm with you, we've been hearing about battery breakthroughs for years now. None of them have hit market.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
I am aware of this, but the point being is that this kind of "news" pops up literally all the time and the vast majority of things never pan out. I'm a little jaded at seeing these types of things in the news as it really isn't news.
Click to expand...


This ain't your lawn!
 
The only question you need to ask to see if this will ever come to the public is.. "Is it profitable?"
 
OpenSource said:
The only question you need to ask to see if this will ever come to the public is.. "Is it profitable?"
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In this case, the answer is "almost certainly not".

Niobium is very rare. Mass producing batteries with it would be cost prohibitive, if there are even enough deposits to do it.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
I am aware of this, but the point being is that this kind of "news" pops up literally all the time and the vast majority of things never pan out. I'm a little jaded at seeing these types of things in the news as it really isn't news.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i get you. The announcements seem to be hourly, so many are just marketing. There is so much progress in batteries now, things are whizzing in a thousand directions all at once.
 
When you stop and realize that lithium batteries are a technology innovation from the late sixties you start to understand the scale of these claims in relation to when they are "invented" and when they meet reality. I applaud their drive but reality sucks. Major systems dont change quickly if at all and logic or "the best" rarely apply to the final products selection of technology.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
Yeah, i get you. The announcements seem to be hourly, so many are just marketing. There is so much progress in batteries now, things are whizzing in a thousand directions all at once.
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Not sure there's that many viable directions here, we've been using Lithium Ion for years.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
It takes decades to change the world overnight. These things take a long time to make their way to the market, graphene is only just showing up in consumer products and it's penetrating the market faster than plastics did.

Teehee... Penetrating...
Click to expand...

Really? I was under the impression that graphene was between hard and impossible to produce in any real mass production quantities. What consumer level products are incorporating it?
 
DNMock said:
Really? I was under the impression that graphene was between hard and impossible to produce in any real mass production quantities. What consumer level products are incorporating it?
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Sheet graphene yes. Graphene itself is actually being produced in quantity. It's currently being used mostly as a particulate addition rather than a singular material. Youll find it mostly used as a rubber additive.
 
Nafensoriel said:
Sheet graphene yes. Graphene itself is actually being produced in quantity. It's currently being used mostly as a particulate addition rather than a singular material. Youll find it mostly used as a rubber additive.
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Nice, so no carbon nano tubes replacing steel for a while then, oh well.
 
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