The wet road to fast and stable batteries

said braka 7:49 AM
Over the last several decades, a multidisciplinary team

of battery scientists at Argonne helped launch the modern energy storage race by conducting extensive research on a host of  for  with applications in hybrid and all-electric vehicles, as well as stationary energy storage for buildings and the electric grid.
One of Argonne's latest contributions to innovative new materials for lithium-ion batteries is a -bearing compound, "lithium titanate hydrate," developed in collaboration with researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This material, discussed in a recent Nature Communications article, could replace the graphite  commonly used in lithium-ion batteries.
As Jun Lu, Argonne battery scientist and co-author, explained, past research had identified lithium titanate as a promising  because of its potential for fast charging and long cycle life, as well as safer operation compared with graphite. In synthesizing this material, researchers used a water-based process that involved a final step of heating the anode material to very high temperature (above 500°C) to drive out the water completely. This step was needed because, during battery operation with this material, the water would react with the electrolyte and degrade performance.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-12-road-fast-stable-batteries.html#jCp