MIT Makes Significant Progress Regarding Lithium-Air Batteries
5 April 2010 | Green Technology | 1 Comment
We use lithium-ion batteries in almost any portable device, and this is because lithium-ion batteries have become very popular and are also quite effective. But using today’s technology researchers were able to develop these batteries making them lighter and more efficient. Researchers at MIT have managed to develop so-called lithium-air batteries which are said to be much lighter and can store 3 times more energy. After the MIT research team led by Yang Shao-Horn made public the benefits of this new technology, several companies including IBM and General Motors have started to invest large sums of money to develop these lithium-air batteries.
Researchers are currently searching for new materials in order to create lighter and more efficient electrodes. They found that batteries with a carbon-based air electrode are lighter and can store more energy than lithium-ion batteries. To find a perfect electrode, researchers have developed a new method of testing the activity of any electrode in a battery. “We’ll look at different materials, and look at the trends…Such research could allow us to identify the physical parameters that govern the catalyst activity. Ultimately, we will be able to predict the catalyst behaviors.” said Doctoral student Yi-Chun Lu, lead author of the paper “Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters”.
These batteries could bring lots of improvements in many areas such as electric vehicles or portable gadgets. This research is heading in the right direction and as Gholam-Abbas Nazri(a researcher at the GM Research & Development Center in Michigan) says ,”it may significantly contribute to the further understanding and future development of lithium-air systems”.
Tags: carbon-based air electrode, lithium-air systems, lithium-ion batteries, lithiun-air batteries, mit electrode, mit lightweight batteries, mit researcers
Nice blog!