Energy & Green Tech

Battery materials: What is the battery of the future made of?

The Empa research group led by Maksym Kovalenko is researching innovative materials for the batteries of tomorrow. Whether it's fast-charging electric cars or low-cost stationary storage, there's a promising material or a ...

Energy & Green Tech

Is nuclear the answer to Australia's climate crisis?

In Australia's race to net zero emissions, nuclear power has surged back into the news. Opposition leader Peter Dutton argues nuclear is "the only feasible and proven technology" for cutting emissions. Energy Minister Chris ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Preventing catastrophic failure in lithium ion batteries

In a recent study published in Advanced Energy Materials, a team of ANSTO scientists, led by Prof. Vanessa Peterson, used neutron scattering techniques to understand the formation of harmful lithium structures in rechargeable ...

Energy & Green Tech

While rare, why do batteries sometimes catch fire and explode?

How likely would an electric vehicle battery self-combust and explode? The chances of that happening are actually pretty slim: Some analysts say that gasoline vehicles are nearly 30 times more likely to catch fire than electric ...

page 6 from 40

Lithium-ion battery

Lithium-ion batteries (sometimes abbreviated Li-ion batteries) are a type of rechargeable battery in which lithium ions move from the anode to cathode during discharge, and from the cathode to the anode when charged.

Lithium ion batteries are common in consumer electronics. They are one of the most popular types of battery for portable electronics, with one of the best energy-to-weight ratios, no memory effect, and a slow loss of charge when not in use. In addition to uses for consumer electronics, lithium-ion batteries are growing in popularity for defense, automotive, and aerospace applications due to their high energy density. However, certain kinds of mistreatment may cause conventional Li-ion batteries to explode.

The three primary functional components of a lithium ion battery are the anode, cathode, and electrolyte, for which a variety of materials may be used. Commercially, the most popular material for the anode is graphite. The cathode is generally one of three materials: a layered oxide, such as lithium cobalt oxide, one based on a polyanion, such as lithium iron phosphate, or a spinel, such as lithium manganese oxide, although materials such as TiS2 (titanium disulfide) were originally used. Depending on the choice of material for the anode, cathode, and electrolyte the voltage, capacity, life, and safety of a lithium ion battery can change dramatically. Recently novel architectures have been employed to improve the performance of these batteries. Lithium ion batteries are not to be confused with lithium batteries, the key difference being that lithium batteries are primary batteries containing metallic lithium while lithium-ion batteries are secondary batteries containing an intercalation anode material.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA