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Is This the Key to Vastly Better Batteries?
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428036/is-this-the-key-to-vastly-better-batteries/[font face=Serif][font size=5]Is This the Key to Vastly Better Batteries?[/font]
[font size=4]One company thinks it's solved a key problem that's been holding back new energy technology.[/font]
Thursday, May 31, 2012 | By Kevin Bullis
[font size=3]Researchers are experimenting with a handful of ideas that could make batteries vastly better than they are today, which could lead to more affordable electric cars and cheaper ways to store solar power to use at night. But many of these approaches have one thing in common: they aren't practical because of the shortcomings of existing battery electrolytes.
Jerry Martin, CEO and cofounder of a small startup in Colorado, says his company—Boulder Ionics—is developing a way of making a type of electrolyte that would enable high-performance batteries. The electrolyte, made from ionic liquids—salts that are molten below 100 ⁰C—can operate at high voltages and temperatures, isn't flammable, and doesn't evaporate. Ionic liquids are normally expensive to produce, but Boulder Ionics is developing a cheaper manufacturing process.
Replacing conventional electrolytes with ionic liquids could double the energy storage capacity of ultracapacitors by allowing them to be charged to higher voltages. That could make it possible to replace a starter battery in a car with a battery the size of a flashlight, Martin says.
The electrolytes could also help improve the storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries, the kind used in electric vehicles and mobile phones; and they could help make rechargeable metal-air batteries practical. In theory, such batteries could store 10 times as much energy as conventional lithium-ion batteries.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]One company thinks it's solved a key problem that's been holding back new energy technology.[/font]
Thursday, May 31, 2012 | By Kevin Bullis
[font size=3]Researchers are experimenting with a handful of ideas that could make batteries vastly better than they are today, which could lead to more affordable electric cars and cheaper ways to store solar power to use at night. But many of these approaches have one thing in common: they aren't practical because of the shortcomings of existing battery electrolytes.
Jerry Martin, CEO and cofounder of a small startup in Colorado, says his company—Boulder Ionics—is developing a way of making a type of electrolyte that would enable high-performance batteries. The electrolyte, made from ionic liquids—salts that are molten below 100 ⁰C—can operate at high voltages and temperatures, isn't flammable, and doesn't evaporate. Ionic liquids are normally expensive to produce, but Boulder Ionics is developing a cheaper manufacturing process.
Replacing conventional electrolytes with ionic liquids could double the energy storage capacity of ultracapacitors by allowing them to be charged to higher voltages. That could make it possible to replace a starter battery in a car with a battery the size of a flashlight, Martin says.
The electrolytes could also help improve the storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries, the kind used in electric vehicles and mobile phones; and they could help make rechargeable metal-air batteries practical. In theory, such batteries could store 10 times as much energy as conventional lithium-ion batteries.
…[/font][/font]
