Researchers around the world are in a scientific race to develop a near-perfect lithium-ion battery, and a startup from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) may have just unlocked the secret.
In 2012, Qichao Hu founded SolidEnergy – a startup that grew out of research and academics from MIT. Qichao started with battery technology that he and ECS member Donald Sadoway developed.
Now, the company is claiming to have built a lithium-ion battery that could change battery technology as we know it.
This from Forbes:
SolidEnergy, a startup spun out of research and academics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims it has built a lithium-ion battery with an ultra-thin metal anode that hikes up the energy density of the battery to 1,200 watts-hour per liter. That’s double the amount of graphite-based anodes in lithium batteries are able to hold–less than 600 Wh/L.
The company continues by stating that the anode in their battery is less than a fifth of the size of a traditional graphite anode. Additionally, the electrolyte developed can work at room temperature, where other anode batteries have to operate at high temperatures.
While all details on the new battery development are not known at this time, SolidEnergy is set to participate in Google’s Project Ara by building a battery that will fit in to the project’s effort to build a modular smartphone where you’re able to switch individual components in and out.
Qichao states that SolidEnergy plans on bringing this battery technology to cars, but for now they will be focusing on phones.
Want to know more about lithium-ion batteries? Make sure to attend our two upcoming meetings: 227th ECS Meeting & ECS Conference on Electrochemical Energy Conversion & Storage with SOFC-XIV.
(P.S. Make sure you keep up-to-date with the latest discovery in lithium-ion battery technology by reading the latest papers in our Digital Library.)
