Issue 3 (2019)
Week 14-20 January 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.
New mathematical model for solid oxide fuel cells
Researchers from AGH University of Science and Technology have proposed a new mathematical modelling framework for solid oxide fuel cells. Their approach is based on a new formulation of the problem to avoid some of the issues in traditional models.
Impact areas: Fuel cell efficiency
Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.05509
New design approach for solid-ion conductors
Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Carnegie Mellon University have proposed universal chemomechanical design rules for solid-ion conductors to prevent dendrite formation in lithium metal batteries. They report increased cell cycle-life.
Impact areas: Lithium metal battery durability and safety
Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.04910
Silicon nanoparticles could increase Li-Ion battery capacity tenfold
Chemists from the University of Alberta have discovered that adding silicon nanoparticles to Li-Ion batteries increases their capacity by 10 times. While the benefits of silicon in Li-Ion batteries have been known, the team has determined that the smallest nanoparticles "showed the best long-term stability after many charging and discharging cycles."
Impact areas: Li-Ion battery capacity
Source: https://www.folio.ca/tiny-silicon-particles-could-power-new-ultra-high-capacity-batteries/
New Li-Ion battery operation model
Researchers from Skoltech are proposing a new model for optimally managing Li-Ion batteries. Their approach eliminates some assumptions typical of "ideal" models and shows a discrepancy with the latter, concluding: "The proposed battery characterization provides a more accurate characterization of the Li-Ion battery system performance and technical operational limits with regard to the classical ideal models."
Impact areas: Li-Ion battery performance
Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.04260