One major concern about the slow acceptance of electric vehicles (EV) is the distance one can travel between charges. To address this, clean energy researchers at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) are working on a new battery technology to help match the driving range of an EV with a petrol-fuelled car.
Lithium-oxygen batteries employ cutting-edge technology to deliver maximum energy density through breathing air to generate electricity. However, there are multiple challenges including low discharge capacity, poor energy efficiency and severe parasitic reactions. The research team at the UTS Centre for Clean Energy Technology led by Professor Guoxiu Wang has now designed a molecule to boost the performance of lithium-oxygen batteries and give EVs the same driving range as petrol vehicles.
“Batteries are changing fundamentally,” Professor Wang said. “They will facilitate the transition towards a climate-neutral society and open up new industry opportunities for a country like Australia that is rich in the fundamental elements for building batteries.”
“They will also help utilities improve power quality and reliability and help governments around the world achieve net zero carbon emissions.”
Published in the journal, Science Advances, the UTS study details a lithium-oxygen battery operated via a new quenching/mediating mechanism that relies on the direct chemical reactions between a versatile molecule and superoxide radical/Li2O2. The battery exhibits a 46-fold increase in discharge capacity, a low charge overpotential of 0.7 V, and an ultra-long cycle life greater than 1400 cycles.
“Our rationally designed and synthesised PDI-TEMPO molecule opens a new avenue for developing high-performance Li-O2 batteries,” Professor Wang said. “The capacity of next-generation lithium-oxygen batteries to extend the driving range between charges would be a significant leap forward for the electric vehicle industry.”
Image: https://news.mit.edu/2021/chinas-transition-electric-vehicles-0429
