Lithium-Air Batteries Could Revolutionize EV Range

America’s department of energy and Illinois Tech have developed a lithium-air battery that has a much higher energy density than its lithium-ion equivalents, a development that might significantly increase the EVs’ driving range. The new lithium-air battery has the potential to increase electric vehicles’ range while easing users’ concerns about range. Future vehicle, aircraft and truck power may come from the new batteries.

According to Larry Curtiss, for more than 10 years now, Argonne scientists, together with others around the world, have been working to come up with a lithium battery — one that uses oxygen from the air. He further added that the estimated energy density in the lithium-air battery is the highest of every battery technology under consideration for the future battery generation, after lithium-ion batteries.

Earlier versions of this lithium-air battery employed a lithium metal anode that moved via a liquid electrolyte to mix with oxygen in the course of discharge, resulting in lithium peroxide or superoxide across the cathode. During the charging process, this lithium superoxide or peroxide is subsequently broken down into the lithium and oxygen constituents. The said chemical process reserves energy and promptly releases it.

The novel lithium-air battery developed by the team, however, has solid electrolytes made using a ceramic polymer substance that permits the chemical processes that result in the discharge of lithium oxide. According to Argonne researcher Rachid Amine, the lithium peroxide or superoxide chemical reaction only requires one or two electrons reserved for each oxygen molecule, as opposed to the lithium oxide, which requires four electrons. More energy density equates to more stored electrons.

The lithium-air battery is actually the first to achieve a four-electron interaction at ambient temperature. Also, the battery uses oxygen from the air around it to function, eliminating the requirement for oxygen tanks, which was previously a significant constraint of the air-lithium battery technology.

The research team used a variety of methods to prove the occurrence of a four-electron interaction. The four-electron discharge process was clearly seen in the TEM images. The researchers further found out that the novel battery does not have the relatively limited cycle lifetimes that the earlier lithium-air batteries do. A test cell demonstrated the new battery’s performance over 1,000 cycles and excellent stability throughout charge and discharge repetitions.

With a considerable boost in energy density over lithium-ion batteries, the newly developed lithium-air battery may be able to address the range issues with electric cars.

Currently, EV makers such as Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) pride themselves in making models with exceptional range. It would be interesting to see how lithium-air batteries change their game plan or level the playing field for other manufacturers in this space.

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