Lithium-ion batteries are found in many electronic devices. Researchers have now succeeded in producing such batteries from new material. This is not only significantly cheaper, but the devices also have significantly more performance.
Batteries can be found in many electronic devices. They are built into your mobile phones or laptops, so you have energy on the go to actually use the stuff. However, batteries are considered expensive and battery life is limited by the size and design of the batteries.
A research team has now made a small but important discovery that could significantly change the future of batteries.
A new battery is made from seawater
What have researchers done now? At the University of Sydney, an exciting discovery regarding batteries has been made (via sydney.edu.au). Under the leadership of Dr. Shenlong Zhao at the “School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering”, a battery made from new material has been produced.
The researchers explain that they are focusing on sodium-sulfur. This is a type of molten salt that can be obtained from seawater. It is significantly cheaper to produce than lithium-ion batteries and is found almost everywhere there is seawater.
In addition to the costs, another problem was solved at the same time. Sodium-sulfur batteries (NaS) have previously had the disadvantage of being able to store little energy and having a short lifespan (a few cycles).
The paper further states: With a chemical process (pyrolysis), the reactivity of sulfur and the phase change (reversibility) between sulfur and sodium have been improved. As a result, the new battery demonstrates a high capacity and significantly extended lifespan even at room temperature. The researchers speak of four times the battery performance.
A new battery could be on the market soon
Why was the product developed? The research team developed the product to provide a powerful solution for large storage systems for renewable energies while significantly reducing operating costs. Dr. Zhao explains in an interview:
Our sodium battery has the potential to drastically reduce costs while providing four times the storage capacity. This is a significant breakthrough for the development of renewable energies, which, while ultimately lowering costs, have previously faced several financial hurdles to market entry.
What happens next? The batteries were successfully produced and tested initially in the chemical engineering facility of the University of Sydney. The researchers are now planning to improve the recently produced batteries and subsequently market them.
There are also significant advances in other areas. Researchers have tested a new material that could make GPUs much faster in the future. However, it is likely still a long way off:
A small discovery could make new graphics cards and processors much faster than ever before
