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Related: About this forumNickelblock: an element's love-hate relationship with battery electrodes
http://www.pnnl.gov/news/release.aspx?id=946[font face=Serif][font size=5]Nickelblock: an element's love-hate relationship with battery electrodes[/font]
September 27, 2012
[font size=4]Images show how nickel, which enhances battery capacity, also appears to hinder charging rates[/font]
[font size=3]RICHLAND, Wash. Anyone who owns an electronic device knows that lithium ion batteries could work better and last longer. Now, scientists examining battery materials on the nano-scale reveal how nickel forms a physical barrier that impedes the shuttling of lithium ions in the electrode, reducing how fast the materials charge and discharge. Published last week in Nano Letters, the research also suggests a way to improve the materials.
The researchers, led by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Chongmin Wang, created high-resolution 3D images of electrode materials made from lithium-nickel-manganese oxide layered nanoparticles, mapping the individual elements. These maps showed that nickel formed clumps at certain spots in the nanoparticles. A higher magnification view showed the nickel blocking the channels through which lithium ions normally travel when batteries are charged and discharged.
"We were surprised to see the nickel selectively segregate like it did. When the moving lithium ions hit the segregated nickel-rich layer, they essentially encounter a barrier that appears to slow them down," said Wang, a materials scientist based at EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE user facility on PNNL's campus. "The block forms in the manufacturing process, and we'd like to find a way to prevent it."
Lithium ions are positively charged atoms that move between negative and positive electrodes when a battery is being charged or is in use. They essentially catch or release the negatively charged electrons, whose movement through a device such as a laptop forms the electric current.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl302249vSeptember 27, 2012
[font size=4]Images show how nickel, which enhances battery capacity, also appears to hinder charging rates[/font]
[font size=3]RICHLAND, Wash. Anyone who owns an electronic device knows that lithium ion batteries could work better and last longer. Now, scientists examining battery materials on the nano-scale reveal how nickel forms a physical barrier that impedes the shuttling of lithium ions in the electrode, reducing how fast the materials charge and discharge. Published last week in Nano Letters, the research also suggests a way to improve the materials.
The researchers, led by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Chongmin Wang, created high-resolution 3D images of electrode materials made from lithium-nickel-manganese oxide layered nanoparticles, mapping the individual elements. These maps showed that nickel formed clumps at certain spots in the nanoparticles. A higher magnification view showed the nickel blocking the channels through which lithium ions normally travel when batteries are charged and discharged.
"We were surprised to see the nickel selectively segregate like it did. When the moving lithium ions hit the segregated nickel-rich layer, they essentially encounter a barrier that appears to slow them down," said Wang, a materials scientist based at EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE user facility on PNNL's campus. "The block forms in the manufacturing process, and we'd like to find a way to prevent it."
Lithium ions are positively charged atoms that move between negative and positive electrodes when a battery is being charged or is in use. They essentially catch or release the negatively charged electrons, whose movement through a device such as a laptop forms the electric current.
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Nickelblock: an element's love-hate relationship with battery electrodes (Original Post)
OKIsItJustMe
Sep 2012
OP
hunter
(38,326 posts)1. Our screwy patent system is inhibiting battery development as much as anything else.
Companies don't fund battery research unless they can achieve solid patents, and when they do this often inhibits commercial production or further research along similar lines.
What we need is government funding of this research and the release of promising results to the public domain.
But, oh no, that would be some kind of socialism. If the big corporations can't make money off of research, it's wrong...
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)2. Something like this perhaps?
http://energy.gov/articles/energy-department-launch-new-energy-innovation-hub-focused-advanced-batteries-and-energy
[font face=Serif][font size=5]
Energy Department to Launch New Energy Innovation Hub Focused on Advanced Batteries and Energy Storage[/font]
February 7, 2012 - 9:32am
[font size=3]Washington, D.C. U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today plans to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage with an investment of up to $120 million over five years. The hub, which will be funded at up to $20 million in fiscal year 2012, will focus on accelerating research and development of electrochemical energy storage for transportation and the electric grid. The interdisciplinary research and development through the new Energy Innovation Hub will help advance cutting-edge energy storage and battery technologies that can be used to improve the reliability and the efficiency of the electrical grid, to better integrate clean, renewable energy technologies as part of the electrical system, and for use in electric and hybrid vehicles that will reduce the nations dependence on foreign oil.
As part of the Obama Administrations investments in science and innovation, this Energy Innovation Hub will bring together scientists, engineers, and industry to develop fresh concepts and new approaches that will ensure America is at the leading-edge of the growing global market for battery technology, said Secretary Chu. With the advances from this research and development effort, we will be able to design and produce batteries here in America that last longer, go farther, and cost less than todays technologies.
[/font][/font]
Energy Department to Launch New Energy Innovation Hub Focused on Advanced Batteries and Energy Storage[/font]
February 7, 2012 - 9:32am
[font size=3]Washington, D.C. U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today plans to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage with an investment of up to $120 million over five years. The hub, which will be funded at up to $20 million in fiscal year 2012, will focus on accelerating research and development of electrochemical energy storage for transportation and the electric grid. The interdisciplinary research and development through the new Energy Innovation Hub will help advance cutting-edge energy storage and battery technologies that can be used to improve the reliability and the efficiency of the electrical grid, to better integrate clean, renewable energy technologies as part of the electrical system, and for use in electric and hybrid vehicles that will reduce the nations dependence on foreign oil.
As part of the Obama Administrations investments in science and innovation, this Energy Innovation Hub will bring together scientists, engineers, and industry to develop fresh concepts and new approaches that will ensure America is at the leading-edge of the growing global market for battery technology, said Secretary Chu. With the advances from this research and development effort, we will be able to design and produce batteries here in America that last longer, go farther, and cost less than todays technologies.
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hunter
(38,326 posts)3. When we find the "perfect" battery...
... I hope it's free for anyone to use.