Issue 16
Week 15-21 April 2019
Welcome to the new edition of our Last Week In Batteries digest!
This weekly digest of developments in the battery space is intended as a demonstration of what one can do with Avogadro One. Avogadro One allows capturing relevant news easily and quickly, saving you valuable time. If you want to know when you can use Avogadro One for your own research, please sign up to our mailing list here. We would also be happy to hear any feedback.
This is a very basic review of last week's events relevant to the battery and fuel cell industries. We do not pretend to be experts in this space but as investors we find such an overview helpful. The digest is intentionally very brief and dry and is intended as a demonstration rather as an end product. We'd love to hear what tools/software/platforms you use to stay abreast of the events in your industries of interest: please answer our anonymous questionnaire.
High performance solid-state sodium-ion battery
Researchers from the University of Houston have developed a new flexible organic cathode for sodium-ion batteries that allows to reverse the formation of resistive interface between itself and the electrolyte. This helps increase cycle life and performance of sodium-ion batteries which are deemed to be much safer than Li-ion batteries.
Impact areas: Na-ion battery performance and durability
Source: http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2019/april-2019/04192019-yao-sodium-ion-battery.php
Study of charge and discharge inside electrodes in Li-ion batteries
Scientists from the University of Virginia have used neutron-imaging methods to observe the process of charging and discharging in thick and thin Li-ion battery electrodes. The new data should help researchers design better Li-ion batteries.
Impact areas: Li-ion battery performance
New lithium cathode recycling method
Researchers from the University of California San Diego have improved their recycling technique for Li-ion battery cathodes to work at ambient pressure. Electrodes manufactured from the recycled lithium performed just like the original ones. The inventors intend to extend the technology to any type of Li-ion and Na-ion battery cathodes.
Impact areas: Li-ion battery sustainability and supply chains
Source: http://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=2763
Breakthrough in vanadium electrodes for Li-ion batteries
Scientists from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have figured out how to stabilize vanadium disulfide cathodes in Li-ion batteries. Vanadium disulphate is more conductive than cobalt oxide, promising higher energy density, but is unstable, leading to short cycle life. The researchers have stabilized it with titanium disulfide coating, enabling fast-charging the battery without a significant drop in capacity.
Impact areas: Li-ion battery performance
Hydrogen nanobatteries
MIT researchers have created nanoscale batteries that gain charge by splitting water from the air and trapping hydrogen. The scientists have built nanobatteries just 50 nanometers thick and report "a power density that is two orders of magnitude greater than most currently used batteries." They want to use such batteries in nano and micro-electronics, where each device or component would have its own power source, reducing overall energy losses compared to systems with a single power source.
Impact areas: Nanoelectronics, sensors, mobile devices
Source: https://techxplore.com/news/2019-04-batteries-water-splitting-technology-core.html
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