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Liquid-metal batteries get boost from molten lead
Donald Sadoway, an electrochemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and his colleagues have been developing batteries in which the three main components — a negative electrode, a positive electrode and, between them, an electrolyte — are liquid. Most other battery types have solid electrodes and sometimes even a solid electrolyte.
In the team's latest model, the positive electrode is a molten alloy of lead and antimony; the negative electrode is liquid lithium; and the electrolyte between them is a molten mixture of lithium salts. The liquids are all stored in the same tank, where they stack up in layers “the way salad oil and vinegar would”, because they are immiscible and have different densities, says Sadoway.
...
In previous versions of the battery, the team had used a magnesium–antimony positive electrode2, but that alloy’s high melting point meant that the battery needed to operate at almost 700 °C. That ate up too much energy and increased the rate of corrosion of internal components.
Their lead-antimony-based cells instead could run at 450 °C. They also did well in tests of durability — a major issue for the batteries used in today's mobile gadgets — showing no sign of corrosion after 1,800 hours of operation, and maintaining 94% of their capacity after 450 complete charge–discharge cycles. Sadoway estimates that they would keep 85% of their charge capacity after a decade of daily cycling. “There’s no battery out there that can offer that level of performance,” he says.
http://www.nature.com/news/liquid-metal-batteries-get-boost-from-molten-lead-1.15967
In the team's latest model, the positive electrode is a molten alloy of lead and antimony; the negative electrode is liquid lithium; and the electrolyte between them is a molten mixture of lithium salts. The liquids are all stored in the same tank, where they stack up in layers “the way salad oil and vinegar would”, because they are immiscible and have different densities, says Sadoway.
...
In previous versions of the battery, the team had used a magnesium–antimony positive electrode2, but that alloy’s high melting point meant that the battery needed to operate at almost 700 °C. That ate up too much energy and increased the rate of corrosion of internal components.
Their lead-antimony-based cells instead could run at 450 °C. They also did well in tests of durability — a major issue for the batteries used in today's mobile gadgets — showing no sign of corrosion after 1,800 hours of operation, and maintaining 94% of their capacity after 450 complete charge–discharge cycles. Sadoway estimates that they would keep 85% of their charge capacity after a decade of daily cycling. “There’s no battery out there that can offer that level of performance,” he says.
http://www.nature.com/news/liquid-metal-batteries-get-boost-from-molten-lead-1.15967
It's not down yet at the cost they want for large-scale grid storage, but it's an improvement.
