Engineers at Cornell University have made a significant leap in battery technology, developing a lithium battery that can charge in less than five minutes.
This rapid charging capability is not just a minor improvement; it’s a game-changer, especially for electric vehicle (EV) owners who fear they won’t be able to travel long distances without spending a lot of time recharging, a concern commonly referred to as “range anxiety.”
Lynden Archer, a professor and the dean of Cornell’s College of Engineering, led this innovative project. He believes that this breakthrough could dramatically reduce the worry over electric vehicles’ ability to cover long distances.
With the ability to charge a battery in about the same time it takes to fill up a gas tank, the need for large, expensive batteries that support a 300-mile range becomes less critical.
This could, in turn, lower the cost of electric vehicles and make them more accessible to a broader audience.
The research, detailed in a paper titled “Fast-Charge, Long-Duration Storage in Lithium Batteries” in the journal Joule, was spearheaded by Shuo Jin, a doctoral student in chemical and biomolecular engineering.
Lithium-ion batteries, which power everything from EVs to smartphones, are known for their reliability, light weight, and energy efficiency. However, their long charging times and inability to quickly handle large currents have been significant drawbacks.
The Cornell team’s research highlighted the metal indium as a highly promising material for creating fast-charging batteries.
Indium, commonly used in touch-screen displays and solar panels, possesses two essential qualities for battery anodes: a very low migration energy barrier, which enables ions to move quickly within the solid, and a moderate exchange current density, affecting the rate at which ions can be stored in the anode.
These properties are crucial for achieving both rapid charging and long-term energy storage.
The innovation lies in the design principle that allows metal ions in the battery’s anode to move freely and find their optimal position before participating in the energy storage reaction.
This process ensures that the electrode remains in a stable condition throughout each charging cycle, allowing the new fast-charging batteries to be charged and discharged thousands of times without losing performance.
This advancement, combined with the potential for wireless induction charging technologies integrated into roadways, could significantly reduce both the size and cost of batteries.
Such a transformation would make electric transportation more appealing and feasible for everyday drivers.
However, the use of indium is not without its challenges. As Archer pointed out, indium is heavy, which presents an opportunity for further research.
He suggests that computational chemistry and AI tools could be used to discover lightweight materials that offer the same benefits.
This pursuit of new materials based on the principles uncovered by the Cornell team could lead to even more efficient and practical battery solutions in the future.
The research received support from the U.S. Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences Program and utilized the Cornell Center for Materials Research, backed by the National Science Foundation’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center program.
The research findings can be found in Joule.
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