Battery Manufactory

University of Central Florida Assistant Professor Yang Yang's research group has developed two promising energy storage technologies in its work with sustainable energy systems. Yang sees revolutionary systems that can produce and store energy inexpensively and efficiently as a potential solution to energy and environmental crises. "We try to convert solar energy either to electricity or chemical fuels. We also try to convert chemical fuels to electricity. So, we do different things, but all of them are related to energy," said Yang, who came to UCF in 2015 and has joint appointments in the NanoScience Technology Center and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. One of the researchers' technologies would upgrade the lithium-based batteries that are ubiquitous in today's laptops, smartphones, portable electronics and electric vehicles. The other offers a safer, more stable alternative than lithium batteries. Electrode For High-Pe...

A step towards new "beyond lithium" rechargeable batteries with superior performance has been made by researchers at the University of Bath. We increasingly rely on rechargeable batteries for a host of essential uses; from mobile phones and electric cars to electrical grid storage. At present this demand is taken up by lithium-ion batteries. As we continue to transition from fossil fuels to low emission energy sources, new battery technologies will be needed for new applications and more efficient energy storage. One approach to develop batteries that store more energy is to use "multivalent" metals instead of lithium. In lithium-ion batteries , charging and discharging transfers lithium ions inside the battery. For every lithium ion transferred, one electron is also transferred, producing electric current. In multivalent batteries, lithium would be replaced by a different metal that transfers more than one electron per ion. For batteries of equal ...

LiPo batteries (short for Lithium Polymer) are a type of rechargeable battery that has taken the electric RC world by storm, especially for planes, helicopters, and multi-rotor/drone. They are the main reason electric flight is now a very viable option over fuel powered models. RC LiPo batteries have four main things going for them that make them the perfect battery choice for RC planes and even more so for RC helicopters over conventional rechargeable battery types such as NiCad, or NiMH.     RC LiPo batteries are light weight and can be made in almost any shape and size.     RC LiPo batteries have large capacities, meaning they hold lots of energy in a small package.     RC LiPo batteries have high discharge rates to power the most demanding electric motors.     Unlike NiCad or NiMh; LiPo's have no "memory-effect". In short, LiPo’s provide high energy storage to weight ratios, are capable of safe fast discharges, a...

Researchers at the University of Maryland and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory have developed for the first time a lithium-ion battery that uses a water-salt solution as its electrolyte and reaches the 4.0 volt mark desired for household electronics, such as laptop computers, without the fire and explosive risks associated with some commercially available non-aqueous lithium-ion batteries. Their work appears September 6 in Joule, Cell Press's new interdisciplinary energy journal. "In the past, if you wanted high energy, you would choose a non-aqueous lithium-ion battery, but you would have to compromise on safety. If you preferred safety, you could use an aqueous battery such as nickel/metal hydride, but you would have to settle for lower energy," says co-senior author Kang Xu, a lab fellow at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory specializing in electrochemistry and materials science. "Now, we are showing that you can simultaneously have access to both...

Novel lithium electrodes coated with indium could be the basis for more powerful, longer-lasting, rechargeable batteries. The coating hinders undesirable side-reactions between the electrode and electrolyte, provide a more uniform deposition of lithium when charging, and augments storage in the lithium anode via alloying reactions between lithium and indium, as reported by American scientists in the journal Angewandte Chemie. Their success stems from the good diffusion of lithium ions along the interfacial layer. Modern lithium ion batteries usually have graphite anodes that store lithium when the batteries are charged. An interesting alternative is presented by batteries with metallic anodes, such as lithium metal, which promise significantly higher storage capacity. However, a significant hurdle barring their successful implementation has been the uneven deposition of the metal during the charging process, which leads to formation of dendrites. After longer uses of...

If your smart, caring Roomba had a heart, you'd find it adjacent to its brushes, behind a screwed-in plastic square: its battery. Actually, the Roomba's battery is essentially 12 NiMH batteries strung together to create one ginormous nickel-based battery. iRobot promises that the battery can run for up to 2 hours, and based on our estimates, will last about 400 charges. That's all fine and good, but depending on how the robot's battery is taken care of, you could find yourself replacing it sooner than you'd like. And for the same reasons, you might find your Roomba getting tired before that 2-hour mark. Save yourself the expense of a new battery and keep it vacuuming longer with these tips. Clean those brushes Each time your Roomba cleans up, debris like dust, hair, and fur get caught in its brushes. Of course they do -- that's the Roomba's job. However, when that debris builds up, your robot works harder to spin the brushes, draining away...