New battery breakthrough leverages nanotechnology and microstructures
In order to create batteries with sufficient stored energy to drive electric vehicles and the next generation of long life electronics, advances in battery technology are vitally needed. One key target for improvement in lithium ion batteries are the electrodes, which transmit current into the battery. Losses at the electrodes both limit the batteries' efficiency and lengthen their charge time. So when Rice Researchers were looking to give batteries a boost, they came up with a clever idea -- put the electrons "behind bars".
In order to actualize this idea, they created arrays of tiny nanotubes. The nanotubes are a hybrid consisting of a carbon nanotube core and a metal oxide outer coating. In essence they've created the nanoscale version of the coaxial cable.
The new tiny cables conduct electricity ultra-efficiently and lock it up inside the structure, thanks to the strong insulating properties of metal oxides. For the metal oxide shell the researchers are initially using manganese oxide, as magnesium is a well-researched battery material. While other research teams have looked into using manganese oxide with carbon for electrodes, the Rice team was perhaps the first to look to coat the nanotubes and create the arrayed "coaxial cable" design.
Pulickel Ajayan, the Rice University Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and leader of the team, states, "It's a nice bit of nanoscale engineering. Although the combination of these materials has been studied as a composite electrode by several research groups, it's the coaxial cable design of these materials that offers improved performance as electrodes for lithium batteries."
Another member of the team, Arava Leela, elaborates, "We've put in two materials – the nanotube, which is highly electrically conducting and can also absorb lithium, and the manganese oxide, which has very high capacity but poor electrical conductivity. But when you combine them, you get something interesting."
Moving forward Rice wants to look into near-term commercialization of the technology. Describes Manikoth Shaijumon, another researcher, "At this point, we're trying to engineer and modify the structures to get the best performance. And the whole idea can be transferred to a large scale as well. It is very manufacturable."
The key aspect the researchers are currently investigating is how to bundle and configure the arrays of nanotubes to get optimal results. They say that the breakthrough may allow flexible electrodes, and in turn flexible batteries. They also say that the material should be able to be put to good use in fuel cell electrodes and electrochemical capacitors as well.
The work is published online in the journal Nano Letters.
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