Two long standing problems with electric cars is their range, how far they can travel on one charge, and the weight of the batteries, which ultimately decreases efficiency. These two problems may have been solved by researchers at Yale University and MIT. They have developed a lithium-air battery that could prove to weigh much less than the conventional LiPo battery and could store up to 10 times as much energy as there predecessors as well as travel and estimated 350 miles which is compressible to gasoline cars. These researchers have discovered a few problems with these air batteries that they hope to solve in the near future. The issue is that the current technology that exists with these batteries limits the potential for rechargeability as well as efficiency. Current is generated in these batteries when lithium ion react with oxygen. When this happens lithium oxide forms a residue on one of the electrodes. To recharge this battery those bonds would have to be broken, which is impossible to do if the electrode is coated in residue. Scientists have developed membranes to try and combat this, but another problem exists which is that the battery only works with pure oxygen, which is clearly not the only gas present in our atmosphere. This battery technology seems to present a promising solution to a huge problem in the field of electric cars, as soon as the last kinks are worked out lithium-air batteries could change the way the world looks at electric vehicles.
No comments:
Post a Comment