Scientists come up with environmentally friendly batteries

The invention of portable lithium-ion batteries(or simply say batteries) made a real revolution in its time. But later it turned out that the elements that make up these same batteries are not so easy to dispose of. And in general they are quite dangerous for the environment. However, the latest research by European scientists can bring another revolution, because they managed to develop environmentally friendly batteries with twice the energy density than conventional batteries.

It’s time for traditional battery cells to find a replacement

According to Eurekalert, forThe study is based on the experts of the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and the National Institute of Chemistry, Slovenia, and the concept of using aluminum as the main element is taken as the basis. Using aluminum battery technology can provide several advantages, including a high energy density, as well as the fact that there is already an established industry for the production and processing of this metal. Compared to today's lithium-ion batteries, a new approach by researchers can lead to significantly lower manufacturing costs.

Material costs and environmental impactthe environment that we expect from our new development is much lower than what we see today, which makes their use possible, for example, to store energy reserves from solar cells. - says one of the authors of the work, professor of the Department of Physics of the Chalmers University of Technology Patrick Johansson.

How are the batteries of a new type

It is worth noting that attempts to use inAluminum was undertaken previously as the main battery element, but then aluminum was used as an anode (negative electrode) in aluminum batteries and graphite as a cathode (positive electrode). However, graphite is rather poorly suited for these purposes, in particular due to the fact that it does not affect the battery capacity in the best way.

Battery Type Design

But in the new development, graphite was replacedan organic cathode made from a carbon molecule of anthraquinone. Anthraquinone is a substance practically insoluble in water and organic solvents, consisting of carbon atoms, hydrogen and oxygen. In industry, it is sometimes used as a dye.

This is interesting: Batteries that can be bent are designed

Advantage of this organic moleculelies in the fact that it allows you to "capture" positively charged particles from the electrolyte and store them in a fairly large amount, which makes them possible to use in rechargeable batteries. Do you believe in the prospect of such a development? Write about it in our chat in Telegram.

Since the new cathode material allowsuse a more suitable charge carrier; in batteries, you can unlock the potential of aluminum. Now we continue to work on improving the technology and are looking for the best electrolyte. The current version contains chlorine, but we also want to get rid of it.

Of course, about the commercial use of technologyit's too early to speak. It is premature to claim the “death” of lithium-ion batteries. Moreover, the scientists themselves are not aimed at this. Their main objective is to provide an environmentally friendly (but not for the sake of reducing capacity and convenience) alternative to traditional batteries, which will provide a smooth transition from outdated power sources to new ones.