A team of researchers has developed anode-free lithium batteries that provide long battery life on a single charge
Battery life and charging speed of EVs depend on anode materials, and the structure of the anode is altered due to continuous charging and discharging. This results in a decrease of battery capacity after some time, hence, the possibility to charge and discharge only with an anode collector without anode materials was taken into consideration, but this method would cause swelling of the anode volume and reduces battery lifecycle.
To overcome this problem, a POSTECH research team led by Professor Soojin Park and Ph.D. candidate Sungjin Cho (Department of Chemistry) in collaboration with Professor Dong-Hwa Seo and Dr. Dong Yeon Kim (School of Energy and Chemical Engineering) at Ulsan Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) have developed an anode-free battery in a commonly-used carbonate-based liquid electrolyte by adding an ion conductive substrate. The substrate forms an anode protective layer and assists in minimizing the bulk expansion of the anode.
This unique anode-free battery has a volumetric energy density of 977Wh/L which is 40% higher than the conventional batteries (700wh/L). This assists the battery to run for 630km on a single charge. The study shows that the battery maintained a high capacity of 4.2mAh cm-2 and a high current density of 2.1 mA cm-2 for a long period in the carbonate-based liquid electrolyte. Further, the experiments and theory proved that substrates can store lithium. Most noticeable thing is that the team successfully demonstrated the solid-state half-cells by using Argyrodite-based sulfide-based solid electrolyte.
It is predicted that this battery will accelerate the commercialization of non-explosive batteries since it maintains a high capacity for longer periods.
Click here for the Published Research Paper
