An international team of scientists have been able to increase capacity and extend the life of lithium-ion batteries.
According to the scientists, they have synthesized a new nanomaterial that could replace the ineffective graphite used today in lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries are used today in electronic equipment: from smartphones to electric vehicles. Charging and discharging on such batteries is performed when lithium ions moving between two electrodes: from the negatively charged anode to the positively charged cathode.
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The area of use of lithium-ion batteries is constantly expanding, but, according to scientists, their capacity is still limited by the properties of graphite: the material from which anode is manufactured in most cases. To find a better solution, a team of researchers carried out a study, published in the Journal of Alloys and Compounds, and they successfully were able to obtain a new anode material capable of significantly increasing capacity and prolonging battery life.
The results of the study evidenced that the nanostructured porous microspheres with the composition Cu0,4Zn0,6Fe2O4 used as material for the anode increased the capacity of the batteries sold today by about three times and discharges by about five times compared to other promising materials that can be used instead of graphite. This improvement is due to the synergistic effect that occurs when a special nanostructure is combined with the composition of the elements used.
The synthesis of the final material is carried out without intermediate stages, thanks to the use of the pyrolysis spray method. Scientists explain that to do this, an aqueous solution with necessary metal ions is converted into steam with the use of ultrasound, subsequently the water evaporates at a temperature of up to 1,200 ° С with the decomposition of the original metal salts. As a result, spheres of size calculated in microns or submicrons are obtained with the necessary porosity to work in the lithium-ion system.
Electrochemical analysis of the material synthesized was carried out by the scientists from the National University of Science and Technologies in Seoul (Republic of Korea), the Norwegian University of Science and Technologies (Norway) and the SRM Institute of Science and Technologies (India).
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In the future, the scientific team plans to continue searching for more efficient battery electrode compositions.