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Home | Green Cars News | Technology | UDRI Develops First Solid-State, Rechargeable Lithium-Air Battery

UDRI Develops First Solid-State, Rechargeable Lithium-Air Battery

21 November, 2009 11:51:00

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Researchers at the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) have developed a rechargeable lithium-air battery, a breakthrough designed to address the fire and explosion risk of other lithium rechargeable batteries.

While similar to lithium-ion batteries containing a liquid electrolyte, the lithium-air battery is more of a fuel cell, where the electrolyte is a glass-ceramic material and oxygen is drawn from the air through small holes.

The cell is comprised of a Li metal anode, a highly Li-ion conductive solid electrolyte membrane laminate fabricated from glass–ceramic (GC) and polymer–ceramic materials, and a solid-state composite air cathode prepared from high surface area carbon and ionically conducting GC powder.

“We have successfully fabricated
and tested the first totally solid-state
lithium-air battery, which represents
a major advancement in the quest for
a commercially viable, safe
rechargeable battery with high energy
and power densities and long cycle life,”
said Binod Kumar, leader of UDRI’s
electrochemical power group.

The cell exhibited excellent thermal stability and rechargeability in the 30–105°C temperature range. It was subjected to 40 charge–discharge cycles at current densities ranging from 0.05 to 0.25 mA/cm2. The reversible charge/discharge voltage profiles of the Li–O2 cell with low polarizations between the discharge and charge are remarkable for a displacement-type electrochemical cell reaction involving the reduction of oxygen to form lithium peroxide.

When fully developed, the battery could exceed specific energies of 1,000 Wh/kg in practical applications.

Today’s hybrid cars have gasoline engines to supplement the electric motor. All-electric cars would require advanced batteries, with the capability to last longer between recharges.

Manufacturers and owners of hybrid and all-electric cars would want power batteries that would last as long as the vehicle, perhaps a decade, said Binod Kumar, a research engineer and leader of UDRI’s electrochemical power group.

In traditional lithium batteries, all the chemicals that power the battery are stored inside, Kumar said. In a lithium-air battery, one of the chemicals – oxygen – is left out. Instead, the battery is specially designed to draw oxygen from the air around it. By extracting oxygen, rather than storing it, and by using lithium metal as an anode, lithium-air batteries are 10 to 15 times more energy dense than other lithium rechargeables.

Their achievements will be reported in the 2010 Issue 1 of the Journal of the Electrochemical Society, due out in December, and is currently available in the journal’s Web site at http://link.aip.org/link/?JES/157/A50.

[source: Dayton Daily News]

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