On the basis of sodium and potassium in the battery has promised for cheap energy storage

From a single charge traveling hundreds of miles of electric cars to powerful chain saw as electric cars, every year there are new products on the market, make full use of the battery the recent developments in technology.

But the growth leads people to concern, all over the world Lithium electricity Supply of many new type of rechargeable battery core metal, could end up being exhausted.

Now Georgia institute of technology researchers have found new evidence that suggests that this battery is expected to be based on sodium and potassium lithium battery potential substitutes.

"For sodium and potassium ion battery, one of the biggest obstacle is that they tend to be faster decay and degradation, and less than the alternative energy," George w. woodruff school of mechanical engineering, an assistant professor Matthew said McDowell, materials science and engineering college.

"But we found that this is not always the case," he added.

The study published in the journal of Joule on June 19, funded by the national science foundation and the U.S. department of energy, the team studied the three different types of ion - lithium, sodium, potassium and how to react with the iron particles sulfide, also known as pyrite and fools gold.

With the battery charging and discharging, ions and particles of the battery electrode reaction and penetrating particles. The reaction process cause the large volume change of electrode particles, often to decompose them into small pieces. Therefore, because of the large sodium and potassium ions than lithium traditionally thought that they are in with the reaction time of particles cause more significant degradation.

In their experiment, in the electron microscope directly observed in the reaction of the battery internal iron sulfide particles play the role of battery electrodes. Researchers found that when the reaction with sodium and potassium iron sulfide is more stable than lithium, showed that the sodium or potassium based battery life may be much longer than expected.

Differences are obvious between different ionic reaction. When exposed to lithium iron sulfide particles almost explosion under electron microscope. On the contrary, when exposed to sodium and potassium, iron sulfide like a balloon inflation.

Georgia institute of technology graduate MattheeBoebinger said: "we got a very strong reaction, no cracks - suggesting that the materials and other materials can be used for the battery, and has higher stability over time.

The study also casts doubt on the idea that large volume changes in electrochemical reactions are always a precursor to particle breakage, this lead to the electrode failure, leading to cell degeneration.

Researchers think that how different ions react with iron sulfide one possible reason is that lithium is more likely will be the reaction concentrated along the grain of cube-like sharp edge, and the reaction of sodium and potassium is more scattered along the surface of iron sulfide particles of all. As a result, when the reaction with sodium and potassium, iron sulfide particles formed more oval shape with round edges.

Although there is more work to do, but the new research could help scientists design battery systems using these new materials.

“The lithium battery now is still the most attractive, because they are the highest energy density of - you can be in this space is full of energy, "said McDowell. "Sodium and potassium battery at this point no more density, but they are based on earth more than 1000 times more rich lithium lithium battery elements.  As a result, their future may be much cheaper, for large-scale energy storage - for home or is very important to provide backup power grid in the future."

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