A group at the University of Texas has come up with an inventive way to create better and possibly cheaper batteries: By bonding its ingredients in a microwave.
Professor Arumugam Manthiram of UT Austin has created lithium iron phosphate compounds that take less time to create than its current method. Currently, lithium iron batteries use higher temperatures to create than other types, which leads to higher costs and less capable batteries for everything from laptops to electric cars.
Lithium-ion phosphate batteries are safer and 'deliver large bursts of power' than the lithium cobalt oxide that is used in most laptops. If they get cheaper, we could have the more improved performance we've been waiting for years.
(The search for longer-lasting, cheaper batteries is often considered the modern holy grail of electronics. Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg has often said that he'd drop everything to invest in stock of the creator of the perfect battery.)
Image: 40-nanometer-wide rod-shaped particles of the lithium-ion phosphate batteries. Courtesy of Arumugam Manthiram, University of Texas at Austin.
The Austin group mixed the needed ingredients and placed it in a microwave for five minutes, heating it to 300 °C. For perspective, the current lithium-ion phosphate creation process is long (hours) and hot (at 700-degrees). This pushes its overall costs beyond those of the inferior lithium cobalt oxide, to say nothing of the environmental problems it brings about.
But why are these better than others? Lithium-ion phosphate batteries, once produced, are considered among the most energy efficient types because of their 'energy-to-weight ratios, and their slower charge loss rate.'
While companies like A123 Systems have started to develop this type of battery separately, Prof. Manthiram's method is different enough that companies have already contacted him about implementing his process into the new batches of batteries
Professor Arumugam Manthiram of UT Austin has created lithium iron phosphate compounds that take less time to create than its current method. Currently, lithium iron batteries use higher temperatures to create than other types, which leads to higher costs and less capable batteries for everything from laptops to electric cars.
Lithium-ion phosphate batteries are safer and 'deliver large bursts of power' than the lithium cobalt oxide that is used in most laptops. If they get cheaper, we could have the more improved performance we've been waiting for years.
(The search for longer-lasting, cheaper batteries is often considered the modern holy grail of electronics. Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg has often said that he'd drop everything to invest in stock of the creator of the perfect battery.)
Image: 40-nanometer-wide rod-shaped particles of the lithium-ion phosphate batteries. Courtesy of Arumugam Manthiram, University of Texas at Austin.
The Austin group mixed the needed ingredients and placed it in a microwave for five minutes, heating it to 300 °C. For perspective, the current lithium-ion phosphate creation process is long (hours) and hot (at 700-degrees). This pushes its overall costs beyond those of the inferior lithium cobalt oxide, to say nothing of the environmental problems it brings about.
But why are these better than others? Lithium-ion phosphate batteries, once produced, are considered among the most energy efficient types because of their 'energy-to-weight ratios, and their slower charge loss rate.'
While companies like A123 Systems have started to develop this type of battery separately, Prof. Manthiram's method is different enough that companies have already contacted him about implementing his process into the new batches of batteries
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