Comparison of potassium metal battery and lithium battery

From mobile phones to solar energy to electric vehicles, people are increasingly relying on batteries. The rising demand for safe, efficient and powerful energy storage has led to an increasing demand for replacement of the rechargeable lithium battery technology that has long dominated the field. Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the United States announced in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the report discusses how they overcome the long-term challenge of dendrites, and developed a function similar to lithium batteries but dependent on potassium (a kind of material capital is increasingly abundant and Cheaper elements) metal batteries. A battery is composed of two electrodes with a positive electrode at one end and a negative electrode at the other end (referred to as the positive electrode and negative electrode in the battery, and the positive electrode and negative electrode in the battery). If you look inside a lithium battery, you will usually find a positive electrode made of lithium cobalt oxide and a negative electrode made of graphite. During charging and discharging, lithium ions flow back and forth between the two electrodes. In this case, if researchers want to simply replace potassium cobalt oxide with lithium cobalt oxide, the battery's function will be reduced. Potassium is a larger and heavier element, so its energy density is lower. Instead, Rensselaer's team hopes to improve the function of potassium by replacing the graphite anode with potassium. In terms of function, this battery may be a competitor to traditional lithium batteries. Professor Nikhil Koratkar is a talented professor at Rensselaer, specializing in mechanical, aerospace and nuclear engineering. He is the important author of this paper. Although metal batteries have shown great potential, the appearance of metal deposits (dendrites) on traditional anodes has caused them trouble. Dendrites are formed by the uneven deposition of potassium metal during charging and discharging. Professor Karatkar said that over time, the tendrils of metallic potassium became longer and longer, almost like branches. If the crystals grow too long, they will eventually pierce the diaphragm, hinder contact between the electrodes, and short-circuit the battery. A short circuit in the battery generates heat and risks igniting the organic electrolyte in the device. In this article, Professor Koratkar and his team, including Prateek Hundekar, Ph.D. student of Rensselaer, and researchers from the University of Maryland, including Professor Chunsheng Wang of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, explained how they solved the dendritic problem for business The application paved the way. By operating the battery at a higher charge and discharge rate, the increase in the internal temperature of the battery can be well controlled, and the self-correction behavior of the dendrites in the negative electrode can be well completed. Professor Koratkar likens this self-correction process to snow removal after a storm. Wind and sunlight removed the snow flakes from the pile, reduced the size of the pile, and eventually squashed it completely. For the same reason, the increase in temperature inside the battery will not melt the metal, but it does help to activate the dispersion of potassium atoms on the surface of the metal, and the potassium atoms move from their accumulated potassium levels to help smooth the dendrites. Through this method, our idea is to use the battery processing system at night or when the battery is not used, and use the local heat supplied by the system to complete the self-correction of the dendrites. Professor Koratkar said. Professor Koratkar and his team also proved that lithium metal batteries can also self-calibrate in the same way, but they found that potassium metal batteries require less heat to do this. Professor Koratkar said that this important discovery shows that metal potassium batteries are more effective, safer and more useful than lithium metal batteries. I hope to see a paradigm shift from traditional lithium batteries to metal batteries. Professor Koratkar said: Metal batteries are the most useful way to make batteries, but it is not because of dendrites. I think that the use of potassium to make metal batteries is very promising. Disclaimer: Some pictures and content of articles published on this site are from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact to delete. Previous post: Analysis on the charging and discharging characteristics of lithium batteries