Browse Topic: Solid state batteries
With the growing global demand for sustainable energy and high-performance mobile devices, lithium metal solid-state batteries (LMBs) have emerged as a research hotspot in the field of energy storage due to their exceptional high energy density and significant safety advantages. However, the growth of lithium dendrites and their penetration through the solid electrolyte remain key issues leading to battery short-circuiting and failure. To date, there has been a lack of effective in situ research methods to reveal the failure mechanisms, which has severely restricted the commercialization of LMBs. This study innovatively employs in situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to investigate lithium plating behavior in symmetric cells during critical current density (CCD) tests under room temperature and elevated temperature conditions. By analyzing characteristic signals at 1 MHz, this study presents the in situ impedance changes at the grain boundaries and interfaces of the battery, revealing that lithium plating is a dynamic reduction-oxidation process. We summarize two modes of lithium plating: one involves lithium metal deposition at the interface due to local current density inhomogeneity; the other involves lithium metal deposition at grain boundaries far from the electrode due to concentration gradient differences. The study further reveals that lithium plating at grain boundaries is the primary cause of battery failure. This research highlights the unique advantages of in situ EIS in the field of solid-state battery research and its applicability to various material systems. Moreover, the proposed lithium plating mechanism provides a theoretical basis for optimizing battery design and enhancing battery safety, thereby facilitating the realization of high-energy-density solid-state batteries.
Today’s electric vehicle boom is tomorrow’s mountain of electronic waste. And while myriad efforts are underway to improve battery recycling, many EV batteries still end up in landfills. A research team from MIT wants to help change that with a new kind of self-assembling battery material that quickly breaks apart when submerged in a simple organic liquid. In a new paper published in Nature Chemistry, the researchers showed the material can work as the electrolyte in a functioning, solid-state battery cell and then revert back to its original molecular components in minutes.
In April, Stellantis and Factorial Energy announced that the two companies validated automotive-sized solid-state battery cells with an energy density of 375Wh/kg. The companies called this “a major step toward commercial use.” Factorial's cells can charge from 15% to over 90% in 18 minutes at room temperature and have discharge rates up to 4C. Stellantis invested $75 million in Factorial in 2021. SAE Media recently spoke with Factorial CEO Siyu Huang about the partnership.
Scientists are racing against time to try and create revolutionary, sustainable energy sources (such as solid-state batteries) to combat climate change. However, this race is more like a marathon, as conventional approaches are trial-and-error in nature, typically focusing on testing individual materials and setting pathways one by one. To get us to the finish line faster, researchers at Tohoku University developed a data-driven AI framework that points out potential solid-state electrolyte (SSE) candidates that could be “the one” to create the ideal sustainable energy solution.
A team led by Kelsey Hatzell, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, has uncovered insights that could help power a new type of battery, called an anode-free solid-state battery, past lithium-ion’s limitations.
From laptops to electric vehicles, Li-ion batteries power everyday life. However, as demand for longer-lasting devices threatens to outstrip the energy that Li-ion supplies, researchers are on the hunt for more powerful batteries.
It's not hard to find automakers and battery companies that are trying to develop viable solid-state batteries. The technology will open up quicker charging, increased energy density and, more importantly, lower costs. At Nissan's Opamma plant in Japan, the automaker's Shunichi Inamijima, vice president of powertrain and EV engineering, shared Nissan's plans to bring a solid-state battery-powered EV to market by the end of 2028.
SABERS, as this portfolio of innovations is named, refers to Solid-state Architecture Batteries for Enhanced Rechargeability and Safety. Developed jointly at NASA’s Glenn, Langley and Ames Research Centers, SABERS includes several advanced material, manufacturing and computational design innovations that enable a new paradigm in battery performance. The primary target application is next-generation electric aviation propulsion systems, yet SABERS will benefit other applications, too.
University of Chicago Pritzker Molecular Engineering Professor Y. Shirley Meng’s Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC) has created the world’s first anode-free sodium solid-state battery.
As companies continue to trumpet their next-gen EV battery tech, it seems like new chemistries face more momentum from the established champ, lithium-ion. There's no shortage of alternatives to lithium-ion EV batteries in development. From lithium-iron phosphate to sodium-ion to multiple solid-state chemistries, companies are racing to perfect these technologies and figure out how to manufacture them at scale. But to an outside observer, it can feel like breathless coverage of future battery technology is much ado about not much. Lithium-ion batteries seem to have all the momentum, seeing as they're the power supply of choice for most EV manufacturers. And if there's anything that's true in the automotive industry, it's how hard it is to buck momentum. Here are just a few of the big issues lithium-ion batteries have in their favor: Already built factories that manufacture batteries and face tremendous costs to retool for a different technology. An economy of scale that has driven down the cost per kilowatthour from $732 in 2013 to $139 in 2023. The vehicle development curve can be seven or more years before hitting production. That means betting on a technology and a mining and manufacturing ecosystem that hasn't been fully tested. Some companies are slowing EV launches and reconsidering investment in new technologies given the recent slowdown in the growth of EV sales.
The 1915 Detroit Electric Brougham was powered by lead-acid batteries, and so was the first generation of the General Motors EV1 back in 1996. The 1915 car could reportedly travel 80 miles (129 km) on a single charge, and the EV1 wasn’t much better, with a range of 70 to 100 miles (113 to 161 km).
Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new lithium metal battery that can be charged and discharged at least 6,000 times — more than any other pouch battery cell — and can be recharged in a matter of minutes.
As current courses through a battery, its materials erode over time. Mechanical influences such as stress and strain affect this trajectory, although their impacts on battery efficacy and longevity are not fully understood.
Solid-state batteries are facing a reckoning as OEMs attempt to commercialize the technology. The 1915 Detroit Electric Brougham was powered by lead-acid batteries, and so was the first generation of the General Motors EV1 back in 1996. The 1915 car could reportedly travel 80 miles (129 km) on a single charge, and the EV1 wasn't much better, with a range of 70 to 100 miles (113 to 161 km). However, today's lithium-ion batteries are routinely able to provide ranges of 300 miles (483 km) and outliers like the Lucid Air Grand Touring offer more than 500 miles (805 km) of range. But traditional li-ion chemistry also has its limitations, and researchers now have the funding, including from the Biden Administration, to deliver something better.
Doctor Sergiy Kalnaus and his team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a framework for designing solid-state batteries that focuses on their underlying mechanics.
A team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Florida State University has designed a new blueprint for solid-state batteries that are less dependent on specific chemical elements, particularly critical metals that are challenging to source due to supply chain issues. Their work could advance solid-state batteries that are efficient and affordable.
By the end of 2023 there will be 10 Chinese electric passenger vehicles using advanced semi-solid-state batteries (ASSB) - an industry-first application for EVs and a milestone for vehicle electrification, according to Paul Haelterman, North American VP at Autodatas, a vehicle benchmarking and research firm. It's “a huge step for the industry's production pursuit of all-solid-state batteries,” Haelterman told SAE Media ahead of his presentation on China's EV market at SAE's WCX 2023 conference in Detroit. A semi-solid-state battery can be one in which one electrode does not contain a liquid electrolyte and the other electrode does. Or it can be a battery in which the mass or volume of the solid electrolyte in the monomer accounts for half of the total mass or volume of the electrolyte in the monomer. Some battery experts view semi-solid-state as a compromise technology, offering a faster route to scale, but is heavy and requires more volume.
Battery engineers targeting electric vehicles (EVs) continue to research designs with solid-state electrolyte because of the alluring twin promises of significantly higher energy densities – which lead to longer driving range – and greatly enhanced safety that comes with eliminating liquidous electrolytes. Additional presumed advantages for solid-state batteries are quicker recharging and longer lifespan – not to mention the potential to reduce the amount of critical, high-cost minerals required for lithium-ion battery chemistries.
Lithium-ion batteries now in widespread use for everything from mobile electronics to electric vehicles rely on a liquid electrolyte to carry ions back and forth between electrodes within the battery during charge and discharge cycles. The liquid uniformly coats the electrodes, allowing free movement of the ions.
Battery development experts from the auto industry and rapidly expanding startup companies concurred at the recent Battery and Electrification Summit (presented by Battery Technology and SAE International) that “disruptive” solid-state and other battery designs are poised to begin playing a role in electric vehicles (EVs) and other applications well before the end of this decade. Adoption of solid-state technology is being advanced, several conference presenters reported, by accelerating innovation in the use of new materials — silicon, primarily — for anodes. And some solid-state battery designs propose to eliminate anodes altogether.
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