Researchers at MIT say they have created a new material that will pave the way to faster charging batteries.
Increasing demand for improved electrochemical energy storage devices—that is, batteries—stems from a broad spectrum of technology. That includes electric vehicles, municipal power backup systems that require uninterrupted power during temporary outages, and various other applications in the agricultural, biomedical and defense sectors.
More efficient batteries will contribute to increasing demands for a greener, sustainable future.
But state-of-the-art battery technology suffer from a few drawbacks. One is the length of time required to recharge batteries. Another challenge, as noted in a report by the MIT researchers in the journal Joule, is designing batteries that combine high charge capacity with "long cycling life of capacitors."
Lithium-ion cells (LIC), they explain, are the leading electrochemical energy storage devices in use today. They boast high charge capacity but fall short when it comes to recharging times.
As an alternative, designs that incorporated plentiful, inexpensive organic materials were proposed. But they were found to suffer from diminished electrical conductivity. Other approaches that utilized modular designs that combined LICs and capacitors within specific devices proved overly complex and costly.
Those problems, according to MIT graduate student Tianyang Chen, author of the Joule report, "create a strong incentive to develop electrode materials that combine the high charge capacity of LICs with the fast charging and long cycling life of capacitors."
Chen and his team came up with a combination of organic materials that can be used in battery cathodes, where lithium is stored in discharged batteries.
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