Metal potassium contrast with lithium ion battery

Source: 2020 - 03 - Then hits: 30 from mobile phones to solar energy to electric cars, people more and more rely on batteries. For safe, efficient and powerful energy storage demand increasing, lead to more and more people require replacement long dominated the field of rechargeable lithium ion battery technology. Researchers at rensselaer polytechnic institute of the United States in the journal proceedings of the national academy of sciences announced the report to discuss how they overcome the dendritic this challenge for a long time, developed a function similar to that of lithium ion battery but rely on potassium ( A substance capital increasingly rich and cheaper elements) Metal batteries. Battery consists of two electrodes at one end is positive, the other end is the cathode ( Known as the positive and negative in the battery, the battery called the positive and negative) 。 If you look inside the lithium ion battery, you will usually find made of lithium cobalt oxide anode and graphite anode. In the process of charging and discharging, lithium ion flow back and forth between the two electrodes. In this case, if the researchers want to simply use cobalt oxide, lithium cobalt oxide to replace potassium will reduce the function of the battery. Potassium is a bigger heavier elements, so its energy density is low. Instead, rensselaer's team hopes with metal potassium instead of graphite anode to improve the function of potassium. 'in terms of function, the battery may be traditional lithium ion battery rivals. 'Nick Carl krut hill ( Nikhil Koratkar) Professor is rensselaer institute ( rensselaer) A talented professors, specializing in mechanical, aerospace and nuclear engineering, he is the lead author of this paper. Although the metal battery showed great potential, but traditional anode metal deposits ( Dendritic) The emergence of has brought trouble to them. Dendrite is made by metal potassium uneven sedimentation in the process of charging and discharging. Professor Karl said krut, with the passage of time, the metal potassium tendril is becoming more and more long, almost like the branches. If the crystals grow too long, they will eventually be pierced diaphragm, prevent the contact between the electrode and make the battery short circuit. A short circuit will generate heat in the battery, and there are risks of lighting equipment in the organic electrolyte. In this article, professor Koratkar and his team, including doctoral Prateek rensselaer Hundekar, and researchers at the university of Maryland, including chemical and biomolecular engineering professor wang, explains how they solve the problem of dendrites, paving the way for commercial applications. Through higher running the battery charge and discharge rate, is a good way to control the battery internal temperature rise, and can be done very well in the cathode dendrite self-tuning behavior. Professor Koratkar compared this self-correcting process to 'snow removal after a storm. The wind and the sun put the snow away from the pile, to reduce the size of the heap, eventually completely squashed it. By the same token, the battery internal temperature rise will not molten metal, but it did help to activate potassium atoms on the surface of the metal dispersion and accumulation of potassium atoms from their 'metal potassium level mobile, to help smooth the dendrites. 'in this way, the idea is to at night or do not use the battery when using battery disposal system, using local heat system to provide complete dendritic since the correction. 'Koratkar professor said. Koratkar professor and his team have also proved that the lithium battery can also be self-correcting in the same way, but they found that potassium metal batteries need fewer calories to do this. Koratkar professor said that this important finding was that the metal potassium battery is more effective than lithium batteries, safer, more useful. 'I would like to see a from traditional lithium-ion batteries to metal paradigm shift of the battery. ', 'said professor Koratkar metal battery is the most useful method, batteries but it is not because dendrites. 'I think, with potassium metal manufacturing metal batteries is very promising. ”