As we noted in our enormously popular Battery Series, "To Hinder all Technology Advances", March 2013 and 2016, this will be the third installment of the Series: We took a look at where battery technology was. So, with the announcement a few days ago about the first affordable retail offering of a graphene battery, we thought, we are due for an update. So, without further ado...
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.
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.
Along comes Graphene
7 days ago, "Real Graphene" Announced the first retail affordable Graphene Battery.
Real Graphene USA was founded by two UC Berkeley graduates who realized the amazing potentials of graphene during lab research. Real Graphene guarantees that all our products use high quality real graphene in its true 2D form in film or nano-platelets.
G-PRO Series: 10,000 MAH w/ 60W Charger
10,000 mAh (37wh) Battery 3.7 times bigger than iPhone X Battery 60W Supercharger - Charges device over x3.5 faster (charger included) Prolonged Battery Life - Lives 5x longer than the current lithium Wireless Charging - Provides wireless charging to enabled devices
Why are current lithium batteries so limited?
To keep it plain and simple: HEAT. When a device is charging, heat is generated based on resistivity of conductor. Generated heat increases the resistivity of lithium. Since the lithium is hotter, the resistivity is higher, which means the device charges even more heat. All of this heat creates a positive feedback loop that can spiral out of control and cause the battery to literally burst into flames.
As you can imagine, this isn’t ideal, so to prevent from catching on fire, batteries will regulate the speed of charging, but this results in battery charging speeds to slowly crawl.
What are the benefits of using Graphene composite?
Graphene is a near perfect conductor of electricity. This allows electricity to flow without hindrance. This dramatically slows the heating process lithium batteries face while allowing charging speeds up to 5 times as fast. This also increases the battery life by 5 times the charging cycles.
Graphene also evenly disperses heat acting as a cooling system. Graphene already generates less heat due to extremely low resistivity. But graphene also conducts heat evenly across battery to help cool the battery.
Graphene, A History...
Graphite has been a known quantity for a long time (humans have been using it since the Neolithic era). Its atomic structure is well documented, and for a long time, scientists pondered whether single layers of graphite could be isolated. Until recently, however, graphene was merely a theory, as scientists were unsure if it would ever be possible to slice graphite down to a single, atom-thin sheet. The first isolated sample of graphene was discovered in 2004 by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester. One might expect that they isolated the fabled substance using some massive, expensive piece of machinery, but the tool they used was amusingly simple: A roll of scotch tape.
When using tape to polish a large block of graphite, the researchers noticed exceptionally thin flakes on the tape. Continuing to peel layer and layer from the flakes of graphite, they eventually produced a sample as thin as possible. They had found graphene. The discovery was so bizarre, the scientific world was skeptical at first. The popular journal Nature even rejected their paper on the experiment twice. Eventually, their research was published, and in 2010 Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery.
Graphene and batteries
Graphene, a sheet of carbon atoms bound together in a honeycomb lattice pattern, is hugely recognized as a “wonder material” due to the myriad of astonishing attributes it holds. It is a potent conductor of electrical and thermal energy, extremely lightweight chemically inert, and flexible with a large surface area. It is also considered eco-friendly and sustainable, with unlimited possibilities for numerous applications.
The Advantages of Graphene Batteries
In the field of batteries, conventional battery electrode materials (and prospective ones) are significantly improved when enhanced with graphene. A graphene battery can be light, durable and suitable for high capacity energy storage, as well as shorten charging times. It will extend the battery’s life, which is negatively linked to the amount of carbon that is coated on the material or added to electrodes to achieve conductivity, and graphene adds conductivity without requiring the amounts of carbon that are used in conventional batteries. Graphene can improve such battery attributes as energy density and form in various ways. Li-ion batteries (and other types of rechargeable batteries) can be enhanced by introducing graphene to the battery’s anode and capitalizing on the material’s conductivity and large surface area traits to achieve morphological optimization and performance.
It has also been discovered that creating hybrid materials can also be useful for achieving battery enhancement. A hybrid of Vanadium Oxide (VO2) and graphene, for example, can be used on Li-ion cathodes and grant quick charge and discharge as well as large charge cycle durability. In this case, VO2 offers high energy capacity but poor electrical conductivity, which can be solved by using graphene as a sort of a structural “backbone” on which to attach VO2 - creating a hybrid material that has both heightened capacity and excellent conductivity.
Another example is LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) batteries, that is a kind of rechargeable Li-ion battery. It has a lower energy density than other Li-ion batteries but a higher power density (an indicator of the rate at which energy can be supplied by the battery). Enhancing LFP cathodes with graphene allowed the batteries to be lightweight, charge much faster than Li-ion batteries and have a greater capacity than conventional LFP batteries.
In addition to revolutionizing the battery market, combined use of graphene batteries and graphene supercapacitors could yield amazing results, like the noted concept of improving the electric car’s driving range and efficiency. While graphene batteries have not yet reached widespread commercialization, battery breakthroughs are being reported around the world.
Battery basics
While many types of batteries exist, the basic concept by which they function remains similar: one or more electrochemical cells convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. A battery is usually made of a metal or plastic casing, containing a positive terminal (an anode), a negative terminal (a cathode) and electrolytes that allow ions to move between them.
A separator (a permeable polymeric membrane) creates a barrier between the anode and cathode to prevent electrical short circuits while also allowing the transport of ionic charge carriers that are needed to close the circuit during the passage of current. Finally, a collector is used to conduct the charge outside the battery, through the connected device.
When the circuit between the two terminals is completed, the battery produces electricity through a series of reactions. The anode experiences an oxidation reaction in which two or more ions from the electrolyte combine with the anode to produce a compound, releasing electrons. At the same time, the cathode goes through a reduction reaction in which the cathode substance, ions and free electrons combine into compounds. Simply put, the anode reaction produces electrons while the reaction in the cathode absorbs them and from that process electricity is produced. The battery will continue to produce electricity until electrodes run out of the necessary substance for creation of reactions.
Other Graphene-enhanced battery products
Graphene-based batteries have exciting potential and while they are not yet fully commercially available yet, R&D is intensive and will hopefully yield results in the future.
In December 2018, India-based Log 9 Materials announced that it is working on graphene-based metal-air batteries, that in theory may even lead to electric vehicles that run on water. The metal air batteries use a metal as anode, air (oxygen) as cathode and water as an electrolyte. A graphene rod is used in the air cathode of the batteries. Since Oxygen has to be used as the cathode, the cathode material has to be porous to let the air pass, a property in which graphene excels. According to Log 9 Materials, the graphene used in the electrode is able to increase the battery efficiency by five times at one-third the cost.
In November 2017, Samsung developed a unique "graphene ball" that could make lithium-ion batteries last longer and charge faster. In fact, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) said that using the new graphene ball material to make batteries will increase their capacity by 45% and make their charging speed five times faster. It was also said that the Samsung battery that will use this graphene ball material will be able to maintain a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius that is required for use in electric cars.
In November 2016, Huawei unveiled a new graphene-enhanced Li-Ion battery that can remain functional at higher temperature (60° degrees as opposed to the existing 50° limit) and offers a longer operation time - double than what can be achieved with previous batteries. To achieve this breakthrough, Huawei incorporated several new technologies - including an anti-decomposition additives in the electrolyte, chemically stabilized single crystal cathodes - and graphene to facilitate heat dissipation. Huawei says that the graphene reduces the battery's operating temperature by 5 degrees.
In June 2014, US based Vorbeck Materials announced the Vor-Power strap, a lightweight flexible power source that can be attached to any existing bag strap to enable a mobile charging station (via 2 USB and one micro USB ports). the product weighs 450 grams, provides 7,200 mAh and is probably the world’s first graphene-enhanced battery.
In May 2014, American company Angstron Materials rolled out several new graphene products. The products, said to become available roughly around the end of 2014, include a line of graphene-enhanced anode materials for Lithium-ion batteries. The battery materials were named “NANO GCA” and are supposed to result in a high capacity anode, capable of supporting hundreds of charge/discharge cycles by combining high capacity silicon with mechanically reinforcing and conductive graphene.
Developments are also made in the field of graphene batteries for electric vehicles. Henrik Fisker, who announced its new EV project that will sport a graphene-enhanced battery, unveiled in November 2016 what is hoped to be a competitor to Tesla. However, the Fisker battery was later announced to not rely on graphene.
In August 2014, Tesla suggested the development of a "new battery technology" that will almost double the capacity for their Model S electric car. It is unofficial but reasonable to assume graphene involvement in this battery.
For Further Reading:
Many other companies are also working on incorporating graphene into various kinds of batteries, for more information we recommend reading the Graphene Batteries Market Report.
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We would like to thank our sponsors, for without them - our fine content wouldn't be deliverable!
- https://www.graphene-info.com/graphene-batteries
- https://www.graphene-info.com/graphene-batteries
- https://www.graphene-info.com/tuning-interlayer-spacing-graphene-laminate-films-yields-extremely-efficient
- https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/what-is-graphene/
- https://www.realgrapheneusa.com/graphene
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 rwricker@gmail.com
For more information, contact Rick at rwricker@gmail.com
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