With the advent of new technology, lithium batteries may become more powerful

LydenArcher, a professor of chemical engineering at Cornell University, believes that a battery "revolution" is needed-and believes his laboratory has opened one of the first shots.

"What we have now[lithium-ion battery technology] is actually at the limit of its capabilities," Archer said. "Lithium-ion batteries have become the main force driving the development of new electronic technologies. More than 90 of its theoretical storage capacity is running. Small-scale engineering adjustments may lead to better batteries and more storage space, but this is not a long-term solution.".

"You need a radical change of mind," he said. "It means you have to start from the beginning. "

Snehashis "Sne" Chowdhury '18 proposed Archer's "elegant" solution to a basic problem with rechargeable batteries using high-energy lithium anodes: caused by dendrites(spikes of lithium grown from anodes) is sometimes catastrophic Unstable, ions pass through the electrolyte back and forth during the charging and discharge cycle.

If the dendrite breaks through the separator and reaches the cathode, short-circuit and fire will occur. Solid electrolytes have been shown to mechanically inhibit dendritic growth, but at the expense of rapid ion transport. Chowdhury's solution: Limit the growth of dendrites by the structure of the electrolyte itself, which can be controlled chemically.

Using the reaction program introduced by Archie Group in 2015, they used "cross-linked hair nanoparticles"-a Silicon dioxide nanoparticle and functional polymer(polypropylene oxide) graft-to create porous electrolytes. Effective extension of the ion necessary route from the anode to the cathode and return, greatly extended the anode life.

Their paper "Limiting the Electrodeposition of Metals in Structured Electrolytes" was published in Proceedingsoft National AcetyofScience. Chowdhury and Dylan Vu are freshmen in chemical engineering and they are the first authors of the cooperation.

Chowdhury, who went to Stanford for postdoctoral research, also designed a method to directly observe the internal operation of its experimental battery. The Panel confirmed the theoretical predictions of dendritic growth through the equipment of Chowdhury.

"I think this is what I want to do," Archer, who has been working at Cornell since 2000, said with a smile, I guess, the life of three doctoral students. "What Sne can do is to design a unit that allows us to observe very elegantly what happens to the lithium metal interface, which now allows us to surpass theoretical predictions. "

Another novelty of the work, Archer said, was "the overthrow of the classic in battery science." It has long been thought that in order to inhibit dendritic growth, the membrane inside the battery must be stronger than the metal it is trying to suppress, but Chowdhury's porous polymer diaphragm -- with an average aperture of less than 500 nanometers -- shows stagnant growth.

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