Batteries & Energy Storage
New technique reveals lithium in action
October 8, 2012 11:50 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT | News | CommentsExactly what goes inside advanced lithium-air batteries as they charge and discharge has always been impossible to observe directly. Now, a new technique developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers promises to change that, allowing study of this electrochemical activity as it happens.
Researchers develop new way to determine amount of charge remaining in battery
October 8, 2012 11:09 am | News | CommentsResearchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique that allows users to better determine the amount of charge remaining in a battery in real time. Using the researchers' new technique, models are able to estimate remaining charge within 5%.
Agreement will lead to commercialization of batteries for renewable energy storage
October 2, 2012 1:50 pm | by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | News | CommentsA Washington state firm with a 27,000 square foot manufacturing and design facility in Mukilteo has signed a license agreement with Battelle to further develop and commercialize a type of advanced battery that holds promise for storing large amounts of renewable energy and providing greater stability to the energy grid.
Nickelblock: An element's love-hate relationship with battery electrodes
September 27, 2012 12:30 pm | News | CommentsAnyone who owns an electronic device knows that lithium-ion batteries could work better and last longer. Now, scientists examining battery materials on the nanoscale reveal how nickel forms a physical barrier that impedes that shuttling of lithium ions in the electrode, reducing how fast the materials charge and discharge. The research also suggest a way to improve the materials.
Waste silicon gets new life in lithium-ion batteries
September 5, 2012 4:58 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Rice University and from Belgium have developed a way to make flexible components for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries from discarded silicon. The researchers created forests of nanowires from high-value but hard-to-recycle silicon. Silicon absorbs 10 time more lithium than the carbon commonly used in lithium-ion batteries.
Glass offers improved means of storing U.K.'s nuclear waste
August 24, 2012 4:56 am | News | CommentsUniversity of Sheffield researchers have shown, for the first time, that a method of storing nuclear waste normally used only for high level waste (HLW), could provide a safer, more efficient, and potentially cheaper, solution for the storage and ultimate disposal of intermediate level waste (ILW).
Self-charging power cell converts, stores energy in single unit
August 22, 2012 3:39 am | News | CommentsResearchers have developed a self-charging power cell that directly converts mechanical energy to chemical energy, storing the power until it is released as electrical current. By eliminating the need to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy for charging a battery, the new hybrid generator-storage cell uses mechanical energy more efficiently than systems using separate generators and batteries.
Engineers damage graphene to make batteries perform far better
August 21, 2012 5:58 am | News | CommentsAfter making a sheet of “paper” from the world’s thinnest material, graphene, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute scientists zapped it with a laser. The light blemished the ultrathin paper with countless cracks, pores, and other imperfections. The result is a graphene anode material that can be charged or discharged 10 times faster than conventional graphite anodes used in today’s lithium-ion batteries.
Energy storage system helps control fluctuation of renewable energies
August 9, 2012 9:11 am | News | CommentsAt Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, several pilot plants of solar cells, small wind power plants, lithium-ion batteries, and power electronics are under construction to demonstrate how load peaks in the grid can be balanced and what regenerative power supply by an isolated network may look like in the future.
Team develops high-performance flexible solid-state battery
August 6, 2012 9:34 am | News | CommentsUsing a universal transfer approach, a team of engineers in Korea have built a flexible lithium-ion battery structured with high density inorganic thin films. The innovation has potential as an essential energy source for flexible displays.
DOE grant goes to lithium-ion battery development
August 6, 2012 5:43 am | News | CommentsWashington University in St. Louis recently landed a $2 million U.S. Dept. of Energy grant with $1.2 million in matching funds from the university to design a battery management system for lithium-ion batteries that will guarantee their longevity, safety and performance. The development is geared toward electric vehicle technologies.
New battery helps breaks barriers for low-cost energy storage
August 2, 2012 5:25 am | News | CommentsA research team has built an air-breathing battery that uses the chemical energy generated by the oxidation of iron plates that are exposed to the oxygen in the air—a process similar to rusting. The concept has been around for decades, but competing chemical reaction of hydrogen generation sucked away about 50% of the battery’s energy. Recent breakthroughs have lowered this loss to just 4%.
New ultracapacitor delivers a jolt of energy at a constant voltage
July 19, 2012 9:01 am | News | CommentsUltracapacitors can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times without degrading, but its voltage output drops precipitously as the device is discharged. A new type of capacitor has been designed by a University of West Florida researcher that maintains a near steady voltage as it is discharged. The key is the level of exposure it has to the electrolyte solution.
Scientists use X-ray imaging to observe running batteries in action
July 18, 2012 6:25 am | News | CommentsUsing high-power X-ray imaging of an actual working battery, a Stanford University-SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory team discovered that sulfur particles in the cathode largely remain intact during discharge. Their results could help scientists find new way to develop commercially viable lithium-sulfur batteries for electric vehicles.
Toughened silicon sponges may make tenacious batteries
July 17, 2012 3:36 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Rice University and Lockheed Martin reported this month that they've found a way to make multiple high-performance anodes from a single silicon wafer. The process uses simple silicon to replace graphite as an element in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, laying the groundwork for longer-lasting, more powerful batteries for such applications as commercial electronics and electric vehicles.
Engineers develop new technology for grid-level energy storage
July 11, 2012 10:26 am | News | CommentsA team of researchers from Drexel University has pioneered a new method for quickly and efficiently storing large amounts of electrical energy. Their solution is an electrochemical flow capacitor, which combines the strengths of batteries and supercapacitors while also negating the scalability problem.
Fuel cell keeps going after hydrogen runs out
July 2, 2012 7:02 am | by Caroline Perry | News | CommentsImagine a kerosene lamp that continued to shine after the fuel was spent. Materials scientists at Harvard University have demonstrated an equivalent feat in clean energy generation with a solid-oxide fuel cell that converts hydrogen into electricity but can also store electrochemical energy like a battery. This fuel cell can continue to produce power for a short time after its fuel has run out.
Researchers develop paintable battery
June 28, 2012 6:04 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Rice University have developed a lithium-ion battery that can be painted on virtually any surface. The rechargeable battery created in the laboratory of Rice materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan consists of spray-painted layers, each representing the components in a traditional battery.
Lithium-ion battery strategy offers more energy, longer lifecycle
June 28, 2012 4:26 am | News | CommentsLithium-ion batteries drive devices from electric cars to smartphones. And society is demanding more batteries with more capacity from each battery. To help meet this demand, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory users and researchers put their energy behind a clever new idea that, literally, gives batteries a bit of room to grow.
ORNL home to new battery manufacturing R & D facility
June 26, 2012 9:04 am | News | CommentsFuture automotive batteries could cost less and pack more power because of a new manufacturing research and development facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The $3 million Department of Energy facility allows for collaboration with industry and other national labs while protecting intellectual property of industrial partners.
Scientists spark new interest in the century-old Edison battery
June 26, 2012 8:57 am | News | CommentsStanford University scientists have breathed new life into the nickel-iron battery, a rechargeable technology developed by Thomas Edison more than a century ago. The team has created an ultrafast nickel-iron battery that can be fully charged in about 2 min and discharge in less than 30 sec.
Ionic liquid improves speed, efficiency of hydrogen-producing catalyst
June 18, 2012 3:49 am | News | CommentsThe design of a nature-inspired material that can make energy-storing hydrogen gas has gone holistic. Usually, tweaking the design of this particular catalyst—a work in progress for cheaper, better fuel cells—results in either faster or more energy-efficient production but not both. Now, researchers have found a condition that creates hydrogen faster without a loss in efficiency.
Potential carbon capture role for new carbon dioxide-absorbing material
June 12, 2012 4:03 am | News | CommentsA novel porous material that has unique carbon dioxide retention properties has been developed through research led by The University of Nottingham. The findings form part of ongoing efforts to develop new materials for gas storage applications could have an impact in the advancement of new carbon capture products for reducing emissions from fossil fuel processes.
'Nanocable' could be big boon for energy storage
June 7, 2012 11:43 am | News | CommentsThanks to a little serendipity, researchers at Rice University have created a tiny coaxial cable that is about a thousand times smaller than a human hair and has higher capacitance than previously reported microcapacitors. The nanocable was produced with techniques pioneered in the nascent graphene research field and could be used to build next-generation energy storage systems.
'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells, batteries
May 31, 2012 4:36 am | News | CommentsPlatinum catalysts in fuel cells are too expensive for large-scale production. Stanford University scientists have developed a technique that could make carbon nanotubes an attractive, low-cost alternative.
