"Salt bath" extends rechargeable lithium battery life
July 09, 2018
The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) said on the 14th that the agency scientists invented a "salt bath" simple method that can extend the life of rechargeable lithium batteries and is expected to break the battery life bottleneck of current electric vehicles.
CSIRO researched with Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and Queensland University of Science and Technology and found that before the battery is assembled, the lithium metal electrode is immersed in a mixed electrolyte containing ionic liquid and lithium salt, so that the battery life can be prolonged, performance and Security is enhanced.
Ionic liquid is also called room temperature molten salt. It is a unique liquid that is transparent, colorless, odorless and flame-retardant. These materials can form a protective film on the surface of the electrode, so that the battery is stable during use, solve the problem of the rechargeable battery is easy to fire, explosion, in addition, the battery so treated can be placed for up to one year without diminishing performance.
CSIRO battery expert Adam Best stated that batteries pretreated with this method are theoretically superior to all other conventional lithium batteries currently on the market.
The new generation of power batteries is the key to the development of the electric vehicle industry. This simple "salt bath" pretreatment will accelerate the development of a new generation of energy storage methods, and then solve the "battery life ability anxiety" of the current electric vehicle industry. By increasing the battery life and charging capacity, electric vehicles will be in the near future. Really competes with traditional cars.
Anthony Omullan, an associate professor at the Queensland University of Technology, said that battery manufacturers can easily adopt this new battery processing method by simply converting the existing production line.
The mixed electrolyte used in the "salt bath" contains a variety of chemical components, and CSIRO owns related patents. Researchers are currently developing batteries based on this technology while looking for partners to commercialize them. (Reporter Xu Haijing)
