. 24/7 Space News .
ENERGY TECH
New design strategy for longer lasting batteries
by Staff Writers
Chicago IL (SPX) Jan 24, 2017


File image.

It's always exciting to bring home a new smartphone that seems to do anything, but it can be all downhill from there. With every charge and discharge cycle, the device's battery capacity lowers a little bit more - eventually rendering the device completely useless.

"Why does this degradation occur? In some cases, we know; in other cases, we don't," said Northwestern Engineering's Christopher Wolverton. "But, in many cases, something probably happened to the cathode."

Wolverton, professor of materials science and engineering in Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering, has developed a new computational design strategy that can pinpoint optimal materials with which to coat the cathode in lithium-ion batteries, protecting it from degradation and ultimately extending the battery's - and device's - life.

The cathode, which holds the battery's lithium ions when it is discharged, is typically a compound containing lithium, a transition metal, and oxygen. Batteries also contain an electrolyte, which is a transport medium for the lithium ions as they move between the cathode and the anode, which holds the lithium when the battery is charged. When the electrolyte decomposes, it can release hydrofluoric acid, a highly reactive substance that can attack the cathode. Researchers hypothesize this could be one reason why the battery loses capacity over time.

"A coating could serve multiple functions: it could provide a barrier around the cathode, preventing attack from hydrofluoric acid," Wolverton said. "Or a coating could preferentially react with the hydrofluoric acid, so there's none left to react with the cathode."

Partially supported by The Dow Chemical Company and US Department of Energy, Wolverton's design strategy and results were described in a recent issue of Nature Communications. Muratahan Aykol, a former graduate student in Wolverton's laboratory, was the paper's first author.

Wolverton previously developed the ever-growing Open Quantum Materials Database (OQMD), which was essential during his group's quest to find cathode coating materials. With information on more than 470,000 compounds, the OQMD is one of the world's largest materials databases, is open to the public, and can be downloaded online.

Wolverton's group designed a way to screen through the database's materials that could be potential barriers to or scavengers of hydrofluoric acid. The group ultimately identified and ranked 30 top candidates, one of which the Dow Chemical Company has experimentally tested to discover that the coating did successfully prevent battery degradation.

"Having a massive database at hand allowed us to find the products of very complex, previously unexplored chemical reactions that determine the coating's effectiveness," said Aykol, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Not only can we unveil a list of promising functional coatings, but we are helping our experimental colleagues target their resources to the best candidates."

While searching for cathode coatings is not a new venture, it has been an historically clumsy one. Researchers currently explore potential coating materials largely through trial-and-error, which can be a slow and limited process. Exploring every material and combination of materials can result in millions, or even billions, of possibilities - far too many to test experimentally.

"There has never really been a design strategy for these coating materials," Wolverton said. "Computationally, we can quickly screen the vast landscape of possible material combinations to pinpoint 25 compounds that are potentially very promising. Now, 25 is a more manageable number that you could test experimentally."

Wolverton said this design strategy extends beyond developing better batteries. It also aims to fulfill the vision of the Materials Genome Initiative, established by President Barack Obama in 2011 to help accelerate the discovery, development, and deployment of new materials.

"These kinds of databases and computational approaches, in principle, are not limited to batteries," Wolverton said. "We are using computation to help design many types of materials."

Research paper


Comment on this article using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
Northwestern University
Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com






Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

Previous Report
ENERGY TECH
Samsung probe finds faulty batteries triggered fire
Seoul (AFP) Jan 20, 2017
A Samsung probe into the exploding batteries that forced the electronics giant to scrap its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones has found irregularly sized batteries caused overheating, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The South Korean conglomerate was forced to discontinue its flagship Note 7 after a chaotic recall that saw replacement phones also catching fire, with the debacle costing the c ... read more


ENERGY TECH
French, US astronauts install batteries outside space station

'Hidden Figures' soars in second week atop box office

Russian Astronauts to Hold Terminator Experiment in Space

The dust never settles on the Space Station

ENERGY TECH
Ruptured oxidant tank likely cause of Progress accident

Next Cygnus Mission to Station Set for March

Japan aborts mini-rocket mission shortly after liftoff

SpaceX launches, lands rocket for first time since Sept blast

ENERGY TECH
Opportunity Continues Its Journey South Along Crater Rim

New Year yields interesting bright soil for Opportunity rover

HI-SEAS Mission V crew preparing to enter Mars simulation habitat

Hues in a Crater Slope

ENERGY TECH
China's first cargo spacecraft to leave factory

China launches commercial rocket mission Kuaizhou-1A

China Space Plan to Develop "Strength and Size"

Beijing's space program soars in 2016

ENERGY TECH
Iridium-1 NEXT Launched on a Falcon 9

Russia-China Joint Space Studies Center May Be Created in Southeastern Russia

EchoStar 19 positioned in orbital slot

OneWeb announces key funding from SoftBank Group and other investors

ENERGY TECH
Glass's off-kilter harmonies

ChemChina 'to file for anti-trust approval in US' for takeover

Breaking the optical bandwidth record of stable pulsed lasers

A toolkit for transformable materials

ENERGY TECH
Looking for life in all the right places with the right tool

Could dark streaks in Venusian clouds be microbial life

VLT to Search for Planets in Alpha Centauri System

Hubble detects 'exocomets' taking the plunge into a young star

ENERGY TECH
Lowell Observatory to renovate Pluto discovery telescope

Flying observatory makes observations of Jupiter previously only possible from space

How a moon slows the decay of Pluto's atmosphere

York U research identifies icy ridges on Pluto









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.