May
24
Battery Breakthrough Works In Cold Temperatures
May 24, 2016 | Leave a Comment
Chemists from Hiroshima University have developed organic radical batteries that are re-chargeable and continue to function at below-freezing temperatures. The Hiroshima team uses a new synthesis method to make an organic battery. The team has a step into one of the hardest problems of batteries – how to function well when cooled down.
Transporting power sources in the coldest places may be easier with a new re-chargeable, non-metallic battery from Japan. This “eco battery” could provide portable sources of power in environments like refrigerated factories or winter environments.
The specific model prototyped by the Hiroshima University team has greater voltage than previously reported styles from other research groups around the world. The method used to create this battery is an improvement on a report from the same Hiroshima University laboratory earlier in 2016.
The team’s research paper has been published by The Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan.
Many of today’s electrical devices use a lithium-ion battery. Lithium-ion batteries are safer than standard lithium metal batteries, but both styles rely on metal, a finite resource that is in decreasing supply. The same problem of decreasing supply exists for copper and cobalt batteries, like the traditional AA size batteries in TV remote controls.
Organic radical rechargeable batteries have the potential to be cheaper, safer, and longer-lasting than current metal-based batteries, earning them the “eco battery” title. This style of battery can re-charge faster than meal-based batteries, the difference of one minute instead of one hour, because they carry energy chemically rather than physically.
Professor Yohsuke Yamamoto, Ph.D. said, “The chemicals in the battery make it heavy and the synthesis process makes it expensive, so it won’t replace other styles of batteries in the foreseeable future. But our battery could supplement traditional batteries in conditions where traditional Lithium-ion batteries can’t work reliably, particularly in cold locations.”
The team expects that eventually, organic radical batteries could potentially be made in flexible, transparent forms for use in wearable electronics.
The new organic radical synthesis method from the team of researchers at Hiroshima University is modeled on a process first reported in 1985 by an American research group. Yamamoto was a member of that lab in the late 1980s and improved the process in recent years as part of work on unstable organic compounds.
“The original method we used took such a long time and relied on harmful chemicals. Now, over 20 years later, we can synthesize the compound much more quickly and safely. Fundamental research on unstable compounds creates a more detailed understanding of how chemicals bond. Applications like this new battery are the results of research that was never originally about any specific end product,” Yamamoto said.
Yamamoto and collaborators are currently adapting the synthesis process further to make the battery lighter weight and ensure it retains its energy output after numerous re-charge cycles.
This team’s news is very encouraging. For all the excitement of battery powered things, particularly automobiles, little thought is given to the huge drop in battery performance as temperatures go down. While a lot of human population lives in temperate zones with little cold or freezing weather, a large and highly developed segment lives where the seasons change and cold is a common thing for up to or more than half of the year.
Batteries that hold and make their energy readily available well below say 0º F (-18º C) would change the market immensely. The hype of electric storage for transport might fool most all of the press, but it isn’t fooling real buyers looking to spend big money or go into debt. Plug in electric vehicles have to run 365 days a year.
A great battery at room temperature that’s half dead at freezing hasn’t much value for a large part of the market.
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