The Dream of Lithium-Metal Batteries

One of the core components of any electronic device you currently own is most likely a lithium-ion battery. But even with all its benefits it has a major fatal flaw – dendrites.

Image by Francis Ray from Pixabay

• Be also sure to check out my other posts and follow me @kralizec and subscribe to my Youtube channel at Kralizec Gaming Youtube Channel

Batteries are all around us. In smartphones, wireless headphones, smart gadgets, and even in cars. And the most used type of battery is lithium-ion batteries. They have a lot of good in them, but they also suffer from a major problem. Dendrites. Dendrites are tiny fibers that over time get created on the electrode because of the chemical processes. And in the worst-case then can cause a short circuit and an explosion.

This problem is one of the reasons why scientists all over the world are working on new kinds of batteries that would not suffer from this problem. Now, experts from Harvard claim they found the answer in the form of lithium-metal batteries.

This battery uses a solid metal material instead of lithium and thus eliminating the dendrites while providing more structural stability than a battery made from liquid or graphite materials. This new technology is being likened to BLT sandwiches. Where the anode and cathode are the bread, graphite is the lettuce, and the bacon and tomatoes are different types of electrolytes. The scientists say their multi-layer construction of a less stable electrolyte between two more stable solid electrolytes prevents the growth of lithium dendrites.

Making the battery mostly from solid materials prevents the threat of dendrite by more than just preventing them from forming. The construction goes one step further as it also has the capability to fill and thus stops any potential dendrites from forming through dynamically generated decay.

So, what would change if the world switched to lithium-metal batteries? The batteries would be lighter, carry more power, provide the power longer… in an ideal world. Sadly, when scientists experimented with lithium-metal batteries they were extremely unstable and liked to explode. So, they have been working on making them stable and providing a viable commercial product for a long time.

Preventing or at least reducing the number of dendrites is key for this type of battery because removing the reason why we need to replace rechargeable batteries as often as we do seriously reduces the impact of any other of their possible negatives. The batteries created at Harvard were tested in 10,000 charging cycles and found out their batteries held 82 % of the original capacity after this test.

Potentially, this battery technology could increase the lifespan of electric cars to the level of regular petrol using cars – 10 to 15 years – without the need to change their batteries. And thanks to their high energy density it could also pave the way for electric cars that can be fully charged in 10 to 20 minutes.

Sources:

• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03486-3

---

• If you like the content I’m producing about science maybe you will like the content I produce about gaming as well! Be sure to check out my other posts!