Revolutionary new battery technology has the potential to increase the range of electric cars.

A new anode material has been created by researchers that has the ability to increase the range of electric cars by at least ten times. The electric vehicle industry has been rapidly expanding, with sales exceeding $1 trillion in 2022 and over 108,000 units sold domestically. As a result, there is an increasing need for high-capacity batteries that can extend the range of electric cars. To address this, a team of researchers from POSTECH and Sogang University created a new anode material using a functional polymeric binder.

Their findings were published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials under the title "Layering Charged Polymers Enable Highly Integrated High-Capacity Battery Anodes. Having high-capacity anodes is crucial for producing a stable material.

Professors Soojin Park and Youn Soo Kim from POSTECH, along with Professor Jaegeon Ryu from Sogang, led a team that aimed to increase the range of electric cars by developing high-capacity anodes. They achieved this by creating a charged polymeric binder for the anode material, which was stable, reliable, and had a capacity that was at least ten times greater than conventional graphite anodes. This was accomplished by combining an Si anode with layering-charged polymers, maintaining stability and reliability.

High-capacity anode materials, such as silicon, are crucial for enhancing the range of electric cars as they create high-energy density lithium-ion batteries, offering at least ten times the capacity of other available anode materials like graphite.

However, one of the challenges the researchers faced was the volume expansion of high-capacity anode materials during the reaction with lithium, which can threaten battery performance and stability. To overcome this, they investigated polymer binders that could effectively control the volumetric expansion.

In what ways can hydrogen be used to enhance the range of electric cars?

Previous research on batteries and energy density has mainly focused on chemical crosslinking and hydrogen bonding. Chemical crosslinking involves covalent bonding, which makes binder molecules solid, but it has a drawback - the bonds cannot be restored once they are broken. Hydrogen bonding, on the other hand, is a reversible secondary bonding between molecules based on electronegativity differences, but it is relatively weak (10-65 kJ/mol).

However, a new polymer has been developed that increases the range of electric cars by utilizing both hydrogen bonding and Coulombic forces, which have a much higher strength of 250 kJ/mol. These forces are reversible, making it easy to control volumetric expansion. The layering-charged polymers bind effectively with the negatively charged surface of high-capacity anode materials by being arrayed alternately with positive and negative charges. Additionally, polyethylene glycol was introduced to regulate physical properties and facilitate Li-ion diffusion, resulting in a thick high-capacity electrode and maximum energy density.

Professor Soojin Park believes that this research has the potential to significantly increase the energy density of lithium-ion batteries, which will extend the range of electric cars. Silicon-based anode materials could potentially increase the driving range at least ten-fold.

#electriccars #EVs #batteries #anodematerials #highcapacitybatteries #energydensity