New Lithium Battery Technology--Solve the problems of traditional Lithium batteries such as explosiveness and low energy density
Recently, a team of engineers from the University of Illinois in the United States announced that they have developed a new type of lithium battery. This kind of battery will not catch fire or explode, and at the same time can greatly improve the battery life of equipment equipped with this battery. This will be an essential battery technology for future smart phones. It can be said that this will not only be a huge breakthrough in the mobile phone industry, but also an important technology that affects the entire digital industry and even the automotive industry.
The biggest highlight of this new technology is that it can effectively solve the two major problems of improving the safety and endurance of mobile phone batteries at the same time. In the same size, compared with the current lithium battery, the power level will not be significantly reduced. According to engineers, this lithium battery is based on a polymer-based solid electrolyte and has the characteristics of self-repair and recyclability.
Currently, lithium batteries use liquid electrolytes. If the battery is severely damaged or heated, it will chemically react with the electrodes. Cause the lithium battery to catch fire or even explode. But this new type of lithium battery uses a special cross-linked polymer, the new electrolyte will not decompose but become harder when heated. This means that the lithium battery will not catch fire or explode when heated.
Although, this kind of lithium battery will not catch fire and explode when it is heated or damaged by the outside. But Brian Jing, a material science and engineering graduate student at the University of Illinois, said that even though solid polymer or ceramic electrolytes have been considered alternatives, they tend to melt at the high temperatures generated inside the battery. It is still necessary to use cross-linked polymer strands to produce rubber-like lithium conductors to solve this problem. It has a longer service life than a harder solid electrolyte, but it cannot repair itself and is difficult to recycle.
In response to this problem, a team of engineers at the University of Illinois has developed a method of making cross-linked bonds so that solid polymers or ceramic electrolytes can exchange reactions and exchange polymer chains between them. This allows the polymer to harden when heated and can also repair itself, which reduces the growth of dendritic lithium dendrites. In addition, no strong acid or high temperature is required to decompose the polymer. It only needs to be soluble in water at room temperature. Therefore, this new type of lithium battery will not affect the environment and is very environmentally friendly.
However, the technology has not yet been commercialized, but the team of engineers at the University of Illinois said that it will do its best to bring this technology to commercial use. By then, mobile phones equipped with this new type of lithium battery will not catch fire and explode, and will have more battery life.
