Lithium battery that is not afraid of cold

When the weather is cold, some people who are outdoors can find out how the power of the phone is dropped. Just 20% of the electricity, the phone will automatically shut down in minutes. This is because lithium batteries face considerable power loss at low temperatures.

In order to solve this problem, my team and I have developed a new lithium battery technology – All Climate Batteries TM, which revolutionized the limitations of lithium batteries at low temperatures. The technology was recently published in the top academic journal Nature.

"All-climate batteries" may help improve the performance of lithium batteries with lower efficiency at lower temperatures. Image source: author of the paper

When the weather is cold, lithium batteries have to "strike"?

When the lithium battery is working, Li+ will move between the positive and negative electrodes, while the low temperature will reduce the Li+ activity in the lithium ion battery. Simply put, the original lithium battery is powered, but because of the low temperature, Li+ "can't run", it will make the battery's available power drop: I have a bunch of large trucks, but I can only use it.

When the temperature rises, the Li+ activity in the lithium battery returns to normal, and the previous "unusable" power is restored. So people who have been to the cold area should know this little secret: What if the camera is not used for a while? You can put the battery in your arms and give it warmth, it will restore the power. Then there is no electricity, then hey, so cycle...

Despite such "secrets", the low efficiency of lithium batteries at low temperatures is indeed a big problem. Lithium batteries are widely used in all corners of various industries and public life, and are also important tools for solving environmental problems. Their energy density and power performance are greatly reduced at low temperatures, severely limiting their use in low temperature environments.

In addition, in addition to the inability to use in cold climates and high altitudes, the "non-cold" of lithium batteries can greatly affect the use of batteries for electric vehicles. The battery pack of an electric car is so large that you can't use the trick of "getting warm and warm". The power lost at low temperatures may require more battery packs to compensate, and more expensive components are needed to "cold start" the engine. In cold weather, charging will also become slow, which limits the "regenerative braking" of electric vehicles and reduces the range of driving. According to statistics, the cruising range of an electric car in a 0 degree environment is only half of the normal mileage.

So, is there a solution?

"All-climate battery", self-heating battery

I am the founder of EC Power and a professor at Penn State University. Our team has been working to solve this problem. The "all-climate battery" we invented was able to "self-heat" below zero degrees Celsius. This process does not require the help of external heating equipment and does not require the addition of special additives to the electrolyte.

The all-weather battery has a very thin and thin nickel piece inserted inside, which self-heats the battery with a small amount of battery energy, greatly improving the efficiency of the lithium battery at low temperatures.

The limitation of lithium batteries at low temperatures has always been a problem that the industry has been working on. Previously, various technologies have been complicated and costly, and they have impaired the performance of batteries at normal temperatures and temperatures. Our team also studied the heating methods of many kinds of batteries, and finally found that using the full-climate battery technology to directly heat the electrochemical interface of the battery is the most effective and direct method.

The all-weather battery subtly fine-tunes the structure of the battery, inserting a very thin nickel sheet inside the battery, so that the battery is quickly self-heated at a low temperature, effectively raising the battery temperature. After the battery temperature rises to the usable range, it automatically stops heating to avoid more energy loss. This technology can increase the power of the lithium battery at -30 °C by more than 10 times without reducing the performance and life of the battery at room temperature.

Our technology has passed rigorous testing. These include 500 low temperature heating tests, 1000 45 degree high temperature cycle tests, and up to 2600 normal temperature cycle tests, without any battery life issues. In addition, EC Power has matured full-climate battery production capacity and is already commercializing.

Given the battery's ability to heat itself in cold weather, my team and I hope that the future "all-weather battery" will help more electric vehicles cope with cold conditions. In addition to electric vehicles, it may also be used in operating drones in high latitudes, in field electronics, and so on. In addition, we also envisioned the possible application of “all-climate battery” in space exploration.

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