To Hinder all Technology Advances With This... 2016 vol 5, rel 2

As we noted in our enormously popular March 2013 Series: To Hinder all Technology Advances. We took a look at where battery technology was. So, we thought we are due for an update. So without further a due...

Where technology advances jump orders of magnitude in every other technology category, the battery seems to make the exception. 

Improvements made since the commercialization of lithium-ion in 1991 by Sony are pale compared to the vast advancements in microelectronics. Whereas the Moore’s Law doubled the number of transistors in an integrated circuit every two years, the capacity gain of Li-ion during the last two decades was only about eight percent per year.   There is even a projected "Post Lithium Batter" era that is referred to that will unleash the technology barrier it presents.

Now that is not to say there is no shortage of battery breakthroughs; however, as grandiose the promises, so thus the demise, for It’s no secret that researchers prefer publishing the positive attributes while keeping the negatives under wraps.  

• Progress is being made, however the lithium-air proposed in the 1970 with a potential specific energy resembling gasoline is delayed due to stability and air-purity issues as the battery breaths oxygen from the air. 
• The promising lithium-metal introduced in the 1980s still grows dendrites, leading to possible violent reactions if an electrical short develops. 
• The lithium sulfur may be closer but scientists must still resolve the short cycle life. 
• The Redox-flow battery promises a solution for large battery systems by pumping fluids from external tanks through a membrane that resembles a battery. 

Lithium, Ring of Fire...

Before we get into emerging technologies, let’s understand why there is a need for a change.  

In the past year rechargeable batteries containing the element lithium have been in the headlines. Investigators in Japan are investigating why a lithium-ion battery overheated on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Narita airport. Last year Boeing grounded its entire fleet of the next-generation plane after the lithium batteries on two of the aircraft caught fire. (The 787s returned to the air after being fitted with a modified system to protect the aircraft against battery fires.) 

Tesla, a maker of electric cars, performed a remote software update to its Model S luxury cars after two fires, which were blamed on road debris damaging the under tray containing the vehicles' lithium batteries. Lithium batteries are widely used because of their high energy density: in other words, their ability to store a lot of energy in a lightweight, compact form. But they have a tendency to cause expensive machinery to go up in smoke.

Lithium, I Walk the Line...

The attraction of a lithium-ion battery is that lithium is the least dense metallic element, which means that weight-for-weight it can pack more power than other types of battery. But lithium is also a highly reactive substance; it belongs to the alkali metal group like sodium and potassium, the high reactivity elements if you recall your high school chemistry classes.

Like all batteries, lithium ones consist of two electrodes separated by an electrolyte. Typically for a lithium cell the electrolyte is a solution of lithium salts and organic solvents. When the battery is charged, lithium ions are driven from the electrolyte into a carbon anode. When the battery is discharged they flow back, creating a balancing flow of electrons in a circuit that powers the device. 

The trouble comes about if there is a small fault or damage is caused to the extremely thin separators that keep the elements of the battery apart. This can lead to an internal short-circuit and a subsequent build-up of heat. This can trigger what is known as a “thermal runaway” in which the battery overheats and can burst into flame. That can cause adjacent battery cells to overheat, which is why groups of cells in some battery packs (such as those used in Tesla cars) are kept in separate protective compartments. 

Lithium batteries can also be damaged by using them in hot environments, and by excessive discharging and charging—which is why most lithium batteries contain special circuits to prevent this. Catching fire if something goes wrong, then, is in their nature. 

Lithium.. Hold on to your Butts...

The breakthroughs that we seem to hear about on a weekly basis are real. But there’s an increasingly apparent gap between a breakthrough and its adoption.  However, there are four configurations (the four horsemen to Lithium, if you will) that you should keep and eye on…

Lithium-Imide (Not so Hot)

Ok, ok - Wasabi Roll did tout the merits of Li-imide technology.  However, that was then and with the latest data.. Well, you be the judge...

Li-imide technology is not new. It was first patented by science and innovation research firm DuPont in 2000. The technology was then acquired by Leyden Energy in 2007, and after four years of research and development, the first product based on Li-imide was launched.

Lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (LiFSI) has been studied as conducting salt for lithium-ion batteries, in terms of the physicochemical and electrochemical properties of the neat LiFSI salt and its nonaqueous liquid electrolytes. Our pure LiFSI salt shows a melting point at 145 °C, and is thermally stable up to 200 °C. It exhibits far superior stability towards hydrolysis

than LiPF₆. 

The Li-imide battery patented by Leyden Energy provides up to 25% more energy density for a given size battery, and is practically insensitive to temperature and water impurities inside a cell.

Li-imide is an evolutionary step forward, and can provide three times the lifecycle of lithium ion cells. However, lithium imide also works with other materials such as silicon, which is considered to be the next big thing in battery technology, and could see us armed with batteries that last up to a week and recharge in 15 minutes. And because of Li-imide’s versatility the company’s research into silicon anodes is“progressing at a faster rate than others” and should be available between 2015 to 2016. 

Leyden Energy is differentiating itself from other battery manufacturers in another way too, as it has taken the unusual step of working incredibly closely with hardware manufacturers right from the start, to create high performance batteries optimized for a particular product. They like to get into the design process so that they can have more impact as an interaction which goes far deeper than you’d imagine, with everything from fine tuning charging algorithms to custom tailoring the battery to give a longer runtime.

So, it’s time to ask again: Why aren’t we all imided? Well, although it's true that to improve the safety of batteries, much effort has been devoted to reducing volatility and flammability of organic liquid electrolytes. Mixed electrolytes containing an ionic liquid (IL), were found to be non-flammable and have good discharge capacities comparable to IL-free electrolytes in Li-ion cells. In this regard, ILs may help to address the safety problem as they are practically non-flammable,[1a, 77] and may drastically reduce the risk of thermal runaway.

However, This situation indicates that the ion in these ILs is prone to consume the electrons that should be utilized for Li intercalation into a graphite anode. To suppress the reductive decomposition of ILs upon charging; In addition, the ILs high viscosity leading to poor wettability of the composite electrodes used in LIBs, poor low-temperature performances, and very high prices, extremely restricts their application.  In short, needs more time in the oven before jumping on this solution. This relevation may be why you haven't heard much form the Li-imide camp since 2012.  

Prognosis: "Not so Hot" is not so hot after all...

The Solid State

Enter Solid State batteries.  However, to understand how they avoid instantaneous conflagration, it helps to know a bit about why this phenomenon occurs in lithium ion batteries in the first place.

Solid state batteries do away with the liquid electrolyte altogether. Instead, they use a layer of some other material, usually a mixture of metals, to conduct ions between the electrodes and create energy.

But that’s only half the reason solid state technology is so exciting. Because there’s no liquid component in these cells—and because they require fewer extra layers of insulation and other safeguards—they tend to be smaller, lighter, and more adaptable than their fire-happy predecessors. That makes them very interesting to carmakers looking for a lighter, safer battery for their electric vehicles. The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, is running multiple projects to either develop solid state lithium ion batteries, or solid state batteries that do away with lithium altogether. 

Then there’s a leader in solid state, Sakti3, an 8-year-old company based in Ann Arbor headed up by CEO Ann Marie Sastry. A profile from MIT Technology Review’s Kevin Bullis gives us a glimpse into the work Sakti3 and Sastry are doing, which focuses on figuring out how to build solid state lithium ion batteries at scale.

She is also developing manufacturing techniques that lend themselves to mass production. “If your overall objective is to change the way people drive, your criteria can no longer only be the best energy density ever achieved or the greatest number of cycles,” she says. “The ultimate criterion is affordability, in a product that has the necessary performance.”

Sakti3’s work sounds exciting, but the company has been extremely secretive about its technology, so we don’t know exactly what it uses as its electrolyte—which could certainly end up affecting the cost or manufacturability of these batteries on a larger scale. We do know Sakti3 has attracted investments from major players, including GM’s venture arm, and claimed last year that it had doubled the energy density of the average lithium ion battery. Another solid state company, QuantumScape, is similarly quiet—but is rumored to be working on similar ideas with solid state tech.

So, why aren’t we riding around with solid state batteries under our hoods? It’s still fairly early days for commercializing on that scale. One of the biggest challenges with battery tech isn’t just the electrochemical secret sauce, it’s replicating that secret sauce in a factory, for a price lower than that of conventional cells, with greater regularity, at massive scale.

Prognosis:  Production at Mass scale needs to be economically viable

The Aluminum Air

An Israeli company named Phinergy has talked up one exciting but fraught contender over the past few years: An aluminum air battery. In these batteries, one electrode is an aluminum plate. The other is oxygen. More specifically, oxygen and a water electrolyte. When the oxygen interacts with the plate, it produces energy.

Aluminum air batteries have been around for a long time, though interest in them has intensified over the last few years. A much-cited 2002 study from the Journal of Power Sources brought it into the spotlight, when a group of researchers argued that aluminum-air batteries are the only feasible replacement for gasoline. In theory, these batteries could have 40 times the capacity of lithium ion batteries, and Phinergy says they could extend the range of EVs to 1,000 miles.

So, it’s time to ask again: Why aren’t we all driving around in oxygen-powered cars? Well, the chemical reaction that produces energy in these batteries also happens to come with a considerable drawback. As it interacts with the oxygen, the aluminum degrades over time. It’s a type of battery called a “primary” cell, which means current only flows one way, from the anode to the cathode. That means they can’t be recharged. Instead, the batteries have to be swapped out and recycled after running down.

That’s a big infrastructure problem when it comes to widespread use. “For EVs that might be an okay situation once the infrastructure is in place for service stations to swap out new and used batteries from vehicles,” explained University of Michigan Battery Lab’s Greg Less via email. “But until that occurs, a secondary [rechargeable] cell, like Lithium-Ion will be preferable.” Aluminum air batteries certainly wouldn’t be feasible for gadgets, because they would need to have their batteries swapped out regularly.

Still, research is continuing on aluminum air, and there are several companies claiming they’ll bring it to market within the next few years, including Phinergy. A company called Fuji Pigment also claimed recently that it had made a huge leap forward. Fuji says that it’s figured out a way to protect the aluminum with insulating materials, so it would be able to recharge without being swapped.

Even if the aluminum air contenders fail, researchers are increasingly pointing towards aluminum as the battery material of the future. It’s a hot field right now: Just while I was writing this article, another piece of battery news was announced—this one from a lab at Stanford that uses aluminum and graphite as electrodes, connected by a safe liquid electrolyte. The group at Stanford says their battery can charge a smartphone in under a minute and can be “drilled through” and still remain functional. Of course, more research remains to be done.

Prognosis:  Need to be reliably Sustainable, ie., Rechargable before viable

The Microbattery

Outside of the bursting into flames thing, another issue with conventional batteries is their size. While almost every other part of our electronics get smaller, batteries are still pretty hefty. For example, the newest Apple devices — which, even though are designed in a super-efficient tiered structure, batteries still takes up most of the space in the body.

This is a problem that goes way beyond personal devices, though. Think of medical implants, which need a power supply small enough to sit inside the human body. Or ambitious long-term airborne craft projects like Solar Impulse, which need feather-light batteries to store energy. Finally, what about Project Jacquard, which seeks to wire computers into our very clothing—hopefully without a pound of combustable lithium tucked into a pocket.

Picture: Harvard University

Enter “3D” microbatteries. What’s the difference between 2D and 3D? Well, think of a 2D version as a simple sheet cake: There are two electrodes, separated by an electrolyte. These can get super-thin, but you’re limited to a very thin cake with a pretty low power output.

In comparison, a 3D battery is more like a roll cake (ok, it’s an imperfect metaphor) where you can increase the surface area of the electrodes by tightly interlocking them in microscopic layers. By increasing the surface area, you make it easier for ions to travel from one electrode to the other—which increases the battery’s power density, or the rate at which it charges and discharges.

 In 2013, a team from Harvard used a 3D printer to get the extreme precision needed to intertwine nano-sized anodes and cathodes using a lithium “ink.” However, more recently, a team from University of Illinois published a paper showing how they used a technique called holographic lithography to make a 3D battery. In it, super-precise optical beams are used to create a 3D structure—in this case, the electrodes—out of a photoresist (think of it as a three-dimensional unexposed negative) which in turn become the battery itself. Why is this better than 3D printing? Well, for one thing, holographic lithography isn’t as nascent as 3D printing, so it may have more promise when it comes to scaling up.

So, it’s time to ask again: Why aren’t we all driving around in Microbattery-powered cars? Well, it's still too early for prime time.  Scientists are exploring many ways to manufacture these tiny wonders.

Prognosis:  Production at Mass scale needs to be economically viable

So Where are We?

While we want a breakthrough battery to be as simple as a successful experiment, it increasingly seems like finding it will be a long, incremental research effort that will see many successes and failures before all is said and done. After all, this is the Infrastructure Age. Don’t expect it to end before it even begins.  Until then, taking the lead on these innovations Lithium has there variations of the threatening tech (see below).  In short, Lithium is king...

Source(s):

• http://articles.sae.org/12010/
• http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~lfnazar/publications/Angew_Chem_Int_Ed_2012_51_9994-10024.pdf
• http://www.pluginindia.com/blogs/battery-technology-picks-up-speed#sthash.BoUNt8j2.dpuf
• http://www.pluginindia.com/blogs/battery-technology-picks-up-speed
• http://gizmodo.com/3-new-kinds-of-battery-that-just-might-change-the-world-1713221624
• http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/01/economist-explains-19

So “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;”

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About Rick Ricker

An IT professional with over 23 years experience in Information Security, wireless broadband, network and Infrastructure design, development, and support.

For more information, contact Rick at (800) 399-6085 x502