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Tiny silicon particles could power lithium ion batteries with 10 times more capacity
University of Alberta chemists have taken a critical step toward creating a new generation of silicon-based lithium ion batteries with 10 times the charge capacity of current cells.
“We wanted to test how different sizes of silicon nanoparticles could affect fracturing inside these batteries,” said Jillian Buriak, a U of A chemist and Canada Research Chair in Nanomaterials for Energy.
Silicon shows promise for building much higher-capacity batteries because it’s abundant and can absorb much more lithium than the graphite used in current lithium ion batteries. The problem is that silicon is prone to fracturing and breaking after numerous charge-and-discharge cycles, because it expands and contracts as it absorbs and releases lithium ions.
The researchers examined silicon nanoparticles of four different sizes, evenly dispersed within highly conductive graphene aerogels, made of carbon with nanoscopic pores, to compensate for silicon’s low conductivity. They found that the smallest particles—just three billionths of a metre in diameter—showed the best long-term stability after many charging and discharging cycles.
[...] “As the particles get smaller, we found they are better able to manage the strain that occurs as the silicon ‘breathes’ upon alloying and dealloying with lithium, upon cycling,” explained Buriak.
[...] The study, “Size and Surface Effects of Silicon Nanocrystals in Graphene Aerogel Composite Anodes for Lithium Ion Batteries,” was published in Chemistry of Materials.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Monday January 21 2019, @12:35PM (3 children)
When I can buy it, then I'll be interested.
Something tells me that if I come back to this article in 5 years time, the technology would have mysteriously dried up / been bought out / disappeared / be unheard of. Same as all the other battery tech advancements.
Until, quite literally, I can pick one up... hold it in my hand... purchase it... charge in from my house... plug it into something else I own... then it may as well not exist.
Countless dozens of this kind of technologies appear every year and yet it's still "Li-ion or Li-Po" in the shops / products / high-end electric cars.
Until someone brings it out and I can buy a "Si-ion" battery in the shops, it's all hot air, lab-works, and not-practical in real terms to actually produce them en-masse.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Monday January 21 2019, @01:26PM (1 child)
I believe you should change your expectations. This is research, so naturally the chance of it getting real is tiny. As a matter of example, consider non-volatile no-moving-parts storage 10-15 yrs ago, we were in a very similar situation. 20 approaches published each year but no real progress. Today we are at the brink of replacing classical hard disks entirely. I find these articles interesting as I better understand where the difficulties are. With batteries there is a myriad of problems it seems, actually more than there were for storage.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday January 21 2019, @09:15PM
Yes, this. Takes only one success. We had dozens of ideas for dramatically improving batteries. It's really only a matter of time before we find one that overcomes all the problems and leads to clearly better batteries.
And we've already seen big improvements. Lithium based battery tech is really not that old. Go back to the mid 1990s, before lithium and nickel metal hydride, and rechargeable was pretty much the province of those horrible NiCads.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday January 21 2019, @10:20PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves