Lithium battery breakthrough: 70 % charge in 2 minutes

Lithium battery is a familiar electronic product and is widely used in mobile phones, laptops and electric vehicles. However, the reputation of lithium batteries is also plagued by chronic diseases such as long charging times and short service life. Singapore's Nanyang University of Technology research team has developed a new type of fast-charging battery that can charge 70 % in two minutes and have a service life of 20 years, which is 10 times the current battery life.

Lithium batteries consist mainly of positive materials(such as lithium cobalt oxygen), electrolytes, and negative materials(such as graphite). Whenever charged, lithium ions are removed from the lithium cobalt oxygen lattice of the cathode material and embedded into layered graphite after the electrolyte; When discharged, lithium ions are removed from the lattice of layered graphite and embedded in lithium cobalt oxygen after passing through the electrolyte. In the process of battery charging and discharging, lithium ions transfer back and forth between positive and negative poles, so lithium batteries are also vividly referred to as "rocking chair batteries." In recent years, scientists have made great progress in the development of new lithium batteries, especially high-capacity lithium sulfur, lithium oxygen batteries, and nanosilicon batteries. However, due to the complex synthesis process, high cost, and short cycle life, many achievements have not been widely used..

Conventional lithium-ion batteries can not be quickly charged, mainly due to the safety performance of graphite electrodes, and when the battery works, a layer of solid electrolyte film forms on the surface of the electrode, blocking the "footsteps" of lithium ions, which in turn slows down the transport of lithium ions. speed. The innovation of the newly invented lithium battery is that it uses an ultra-long titanium dioxide nanotube gel instead of traditional graphite material as a battery electrode. The new material does not form an electrolytic membrane, and lithium ions can be rapidly embedded to achieve a fast charging effect. At the same time, thanks to the special structure of one-dimensional titanium dioxide nanometer gel, the new battery has achieved a breakthrough in life, and the number of cycles can reach tens of thousands. Assuming one charge per day, it can be used for more than 20 years. Moreover, the titanium dioxide(commonly known as titanium dioxide) raw materials used in this research are low in cost and easy to process, and the battery is good in repeatability and reliability. It can seamlessly connect with existing processes, and its industrial application prospects are very bright.

Lithium batteries appeared in the 1970s. In 1991, Sony released its first commercial lithium battery, and since then it has revolutionized consumer electronics. Lithium-ion batteries have been widely used, but their endurance and service life have not been effectively broken, which has also restricted the rapid development of electric vehicles and other industries. This new technological breakthrough will have a wide impact in many fields. In the mobile device field, new batteries can avoid the "forced elimination" of some electronic devices; The electric car industry will also benefit greatly, not only by reducing the charging time from a few hours to a few minutes, but also by eliminating the need for frequent replacement of expensive batteries(which cost about $10,000), which will benefit the further popularity of electric cars.

However, a bottleneck in the current development of lithium batteries is that if you want to increase capacity, you must sacrifice the charging speed and cycle life, and it is difficult to increase the charging speed to maintain higher capacity. In the future, the upgrading of batteries needs to improve safety performance on the one hand, such as the study of solid semi-solid electrolytes. On the other hand, it is necessary to speed up the development of large-capacity cathode materials to achieve a breakthrough in the energy density of lithium batteries. In short, the positive and negative poles of batteries and electrolyte materials need to be developed in concert so that they can make greater progress in terms of shape and capacity.

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