In order to push batteries even farther, researchers are employing an affordable substance.
Electric Vehicles to Travel 1,000 Miles.
When switching from gasoline-powered to electric vehicles (EVs), range is one of the main concerns. With just one charge, how far can you go? Its formulation, according to researchers, greatly extends the scope of conventional design. They assert that they are able to increase an EV’s average range to more than 1,000 km (600 miles). It’s silicon that holds the key.
potential of Silicon.
Because silicon is widely available, it has been regarded as an interesting component to integrate with battery architectures. However, silicon has a bothersome characteristic that causes it to expand when charged. During the charging process, silicon elements have the potential to triple in size before contracting again. You can imagine that despite their benefits, engineers do not particularly enjoy rapidly expanding battery elements.
For these reasons, silicon has been regarded as a nanoparticle that increases the benefits while decreasing the drawbacks in batteries. New disadvantages do, however, emerge because the process of creating these nanoparticles is far more expensive and sophisticated.
Electric Vehicles South Korea Technology.
In order to move from the nano to the micro scale, researchers from Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea have chosen to focus on silicon particles that are roughly 1,000 times larger. These are highly energy dense and can be produced more easily and affordably. At this scale, the primary problem is the expansion, but the team figured out a solution.
In order to accommodate the silicon’s changing size during the charging process, they used a gel polymer electrolyte. It would be insufficient to simply add silicon particles to the gel; there must be a chemical connection between the two. To counteract this, an electron beam was used to irradiate the gel-microparticle combination. This helped to mitigate the effects of the expansion by forming covalent bonds between the two, which improved stability.
The batteries demonstrated stable performance and matched standard lithium-ion battery characteristics, but with an additional 40% increase in energy density.
“Despite using a micro-silicon anode, our battery remains stable.” According to a statement from Professor Soojin Park, “This research moves us closer to a real high-energy-density lithium-ion battery system.”
The team argues that this approach is ready for immediate application because the manufacturing process for such a battery is so simple. It would be interesting to observe the real performance of this method in a full-size battery system.