A battery breakthrough may be on the horizon if Canadian research pans out.
Quanan Pang, who led the research while a PhD candidate at Waterloo, and his fellow researchers made a breakthrough involving the use of negative electrodes made of lithium metal. The material has the potential to dramatically increase battery storage technology.
With increased energy density and therefore energy capacity, electric vehicles could see as much as three times the range on a single charge.
“This will mean cheap, safe, long-lasting batteries that give people much more range in their electric vehicles,” said Pang.
In developing the technology, two challenges arose for researchers. The first involved a risk of fires and explosions caused by microscopic structural changes to the lithium metal during repeated charge-discharge cycles. The second involved a reaction that creates corrosion and limits both how well the electrodes work and how long they last.
Researchers were able to solve both problems by adding a compound of phosphorus and sulfur to the electrolyte liquid carrying a charge within batteries.
Technical Details
Those interested in the technical details can find them on Joule: An In Vivo Formed Solid Electrolyte Surface Layer Enables Stable Plating of Li Metal.
Timeframe?
I have always been in the group who believed electric would win out. However, theoretical research is one thing and actual development that works without a hitch is another. Anyone recall exploding phones?
At triple the range, electric becomes a viable option for a huge percentage of people.
The question now is not if such technology will eventually work, but when. I suspect such technology will be in widespread use within a few years.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
If the technology ever becomes viable, Tesla will buy them out and bury the technology.
To respond to an earlier comment about the loss of tax revenue because of reduced fossil fuel consumption: They are already seeing this with increased fuel economy and are struggling with it. This reduction has made them well aware of the problems that EV will bring.
What’s their solution? Only time will tell. I suspect they will start much heavier taxation on power and apply some taxation on those who generate their own power lest they become a source of tax evasion. Or they will move back to the method of vehicle weight.
Whatever they do, they will make things more expensive and will do it in such a way as to warp the economies.
Question is — what about the economics? Not just the impact of subsidies, but the impact on greedy governments if they start to lose the vast cash flow they get from taxing fossil fuels. And of course there is the perpetual question with electric anything — what fuel will be used to create the power to charge the batteries?
Technology marches on. There seems to have been a constant trickle of announcements about improved battery performance over the last several years. On the other hand, there is a constant flood of environmental alarmist material about the world running out of phosphorous — with life-ending consequences for food production, let alone improved batteries.
My Grandma just bought a hole heap of shares in sulphur and phosphorous mines after doubling her money from all those bitcoins she bought the other day. One look at the above technicals and she was in.
There is also Dyson’s solid state battery that evidently overcomes fire hazard and offers good (better than now) range.
There is also Dyson’s solid state battery that evidently reduces fire hazard whilst offering good (better than now) range.