Limiting Factor In Electric Car Batteries Discovered, New Finding Could Lead To Longer Lasting Batteries

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

 
New research has revealed what may be one of the primary limiting factors in the lifespan of the battery type typically used in electric and hybrid vehicles.

20121214-131629.jpg

It was discovered that, as the batteries are used, they slowly lose lithium, as it accumulates outside the battery electrodes. This happens primarily in the ‘current collector,’ which is the sheet of copper that improves the efficiency of electron transfer between the electrodes and the electrical system.

“This knowledge could aid in improving design and performance of batteries,” explained Bharat Bhushan, Ohio Eminent Scholar and Howard D. Winbigler Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

“Our study shows that the copper current collector plays a role in the performance of the battery,” he said.

“We didn’t set out to find lithium in the current collector, so you could say we accidentally discovered it, and how it got there is a bit of a mystery. As far as we know, nobody has ever expected active lithium to migrate inside the current collector,” Bhushan said.


The researchers had been working to determine what could be done to improve battery performance, though they seem to have gotten quite lucky in finding what they found. The discovery could potentially lead to better performing batteries, which would give a big boost to electric vehicles. The researchers are hoping that battery producers further investigate their findings. The researchers themselves plan to next study the impedance of lithium-ion batteries on the nanoscale.

The new research was just published in the journal Scripta Materialia.

Source: Ohio State University
Image Credits: CSIRO Australia


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

James Ayre has 4830 posts and counting. See all posts by James Ayre