As a crucial component of EVs, power batteries have become a core part of research and development in the growing market of NEVs. Current, weight, performance, storage capacity, and a lifetime of power batteries are key areas of research that are essential for the continued success of the NEVs market.
Then there might be improved lithium-ion batteries, maybe using silicon anodes or rocksalt cathodes, for mid-range vehicles, or perhaps solid-state lithium batteries will take over that class. Then there might be LiS or even lithium–air cells for high-end cars — or flying taxis. But there’s a lot of work yet to be done.
Many electric vehicles are powered by batteries that contain cobalt — a metal that carries high financial, environmental, and social costs. MIT researchers have now designed a battery material that could offer a more sustainable way to power electric cars.
“It is already competitive with incumbent technologies, and it can save a lot of the cost and pain and environmental issues related to mining the metals that currently go into batteries.” Dincă is the senior author of the study, which appears today in the journal ACS Central Science.
MIT researchers have now designed a battery material that could offer a more sustainable way to power electric cars. The new lithium-ion battery includes a cathode based on organic materials, instead of cobalt or nickel (another metal often used in lithium-ion batteries).
Batteries are effectively chemical sandwiches, which work by shuttling charged ions from one side (the anode) to the other (the cathode) through some intermediate material (the electrolyte) while electrons flow in an outside circuit. Recharging the battery means shunting the ions back to the anode (see ‘How a battery works’).