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posted by takyon on Sunday August 26 2018, @12:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the green-hot dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

Lithium-oxygen batteries could store 10 times the energy of today's lithium-ion cells

Lithium-ion batteries power everything from our smartphones to our cars. But one of their most promising replacements is lithium-oxygen batteries, which in theory could store 10 times more power. The only problem: They fall apart after just a handful of charging cycles. Now, researchers have found that running them at high temperatures—along with a couple of other fixes—can push them to at least 150 cycles. Although they would be too hot to handle in phones, lithium-oxygen batteries the size of rail cars could one day underpin a green energy grid, storing excess wind and solar power and delivering it on demand.

"This is very encouraging," says Yang Shao-Horn, a chemical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge who was not involved in the work. But she and others caution that the new batteries must prove themselves over many more cycles before they'll be considered for the mass market.

A high-energy-density lithium-oxygen battery based on a reversible four-electron conversion to lithium oxide (DOI: 10.1126/science.aas9343) (DX)


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 26 2018, @02:17PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 26 2018, @02:17PM (#726552)

    Will it explode and burn 10 times harder?

  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday August 26 2018, @02:51PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday August 26 2018, @02:51PM (#726564)

    I'm picturing this rail-car sized battery with 12" of thermal insulation around it to keep it up to temp without losing all the stored energy to heat.

    Presumably, they can run these batteries out on a rail-track somewhere safely spaced and away from valuable structures, maybe in disused rail-yards.

    In case of thermal runaway? Bring popcorn and enjoy the show.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Ken_g6 on Sunday August 26 2018, @04:13PM

    by Ken_g6 (3706) on Sunday August 26 2018, @04:13PM (#726579)

    Funny thing is, with an oxygen battery, discharging is burning. It's just the explosions they want to avoid.