The promise of fast-charging lithium-ion batteries has revolutionized our daily lives, powering everything from smartphones and laptops to electric vehicles. However, their notorious tendency to overheat or catch fire has also raised concerns about safety. A breakthrough in computational modeling by a University of Wisconsin-Madison mechanical engineer may hold the key to resolving this issue.

Weiyu Li, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UW-Madison, has developed a novel model that sheds light on the phenomenon of lithium plating. This process occurs when fast charging triggers metallic lithium to build up on the surface of a battery’s anode, leading to faster degradation or even fire. With her innovative model, Li has gained a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between ion transport and electrochemical reactions that drives lithium plating.

By studying lithium plating on a graphite anode in a lithium-ion battery, Li’s model revealed key relationships between operating conditions, material properties, and the onset of lithium plating. This knowledge has far-reaching implications for researchers seeking to design not only optimal battery materials but also charging protocols that extend battery life.

According to Li, “Using this model, I was able to establish relationships between key factors, such as operating conditions and material properties, and the onset of lithium plating.” Her findings provide a physics-based guidance on strategies to mitigate plating, making it easier for researchers to harness these results without needing additional simulations.

The significance of Li’s research lies in its potential to enable safer and more efficient fast-charging batteries. By adjusting current densities during charging based on the state of charge and material properties, researchers can avoid lithium plating altogether. This breakthrough has the potential to revolutionize the field of battery technology, paving the way for faster, longer-lasting, and safer batteries that power our increasingly connected world.

Li’s model also offers a more comprehensive understanding of lithium plating than previous research, which mainly focused on extreme cases. Her plan to further develop her model to incorporate mechanical factors, such as stress generation, will provide an even more detailed picture of the phenomenon.

The future of fast-charging batteries has never looked brighter, and Li’s innovative computational model is at the forefront of this revolution.

The world is on its way to becoming increasingly electric. Electric vehicles, appliances, and technologies like artificial intelligence are transforming our society. However, for us to maximize the benefits of electrification, we need batteries that are not only more efficient but also cheaper. Researchers from Virginia Tech have made a groundbreaking discovery that brings us closer to achieving this goal.

A team of chemists led by Feng Lin and Louis Madsen has found a way to see into battery interfaces, which are notoriously tricky spots buried deep inside the cell. The research findings were published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

The study’s first author, Jungki Min, explained that there have been major challenges at these interfaces for a long time. “We’re always trying to gain better control over these buried surfaces,” he said. The team’s discovery of a new imaging technique was accidental, as they were originally looking at a new formulation of electrolyte material.

The electrolyte is the filling that carries charged particles back and forth to charge and discharge a battery. It can be liquid, solid, gel-like, or even multiphase, which means it can shift from rigid to flexible depending on the conditions. But what’s the best material to use for this critical task?

Lin and Madsen have been working on developing high-energy batteries with longer lifespans that can be stable at extreme temperatures. They’ve been looking at something called a multiphase polymer electrolyte, which has the potential to store more energy in the same size battery while being safer and cheaper than conventional batteries.

However, these batteries are plagued by weird growths and unhelpful behaviors where the electrolyte and electrodes come together. To catch a glimpse of what was causing this spazzy interface behavior, Min took many trips to Brookhaven National Laboratory.

What researchers found allowed them to pinpoint the source of the problems: part of the architectural support system degraded as the battery cycled, leading to eventual failure. But it’s more than just a simple diagnosis – from here on out, researchers can use this technique to finally see both the intricate structure and chemical reactions of the buried interfaces.

“This has been a great collaboration between multiple research laboratories across the country,” said Lin, who is a Leo and Melva Harris Faculty Fellow. “We now have a good mechanistic picture to guide us for a better design of interfaces and interphases in solid polymer batteries.”

The world is on the cusp of a revolution in battery technology, one that could make our lives easier, safer, and more sustainable. Imagine a world where your smartphone, pacemaker, or electric vehicle never runs out of power, thanks to a cutting-edge nuclear battery that lasts for decades without recharging. That’s the promise of Su-Il In’s groundbreaking research at Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology.

The problem with conventional lithium-ion batteries is their limited lifespan and the environmental impact of mining lithium. In’s team has been working on a safe, small, and affordable nuclear battery powered by radiocarbon, an unstable and radioactive form of carbon that degrades very slowly. This means a radiocarbon-powered battery could theoretically last for millennia.

The researchers have developed a prototype betavoltaic battery using radiocarbon, which generates power by harnessing high-energy particles emitted by the radioactive material. Not all radioactive elements emit radiation that’s damaging to living organisms, and some can be blocked by certain materials. In this design, beta rays from radiocarbon collide with a semiconductor material, resulting in electricity production.

To improve energy conversion efficiency, In’s team used an advanced titanium dioxide-based semiconductor sensitized with a ruthenium-based dye. This innovative approach enabled the collection of generated electrons and increased energy conversion efficiency to 2.86%, compared to a previous design with radiocarbon on only the cathode (0.48%).

The implications are enormous: long-lasting nuclear batteries could enable many applications, such as pacemakers that would last a person’s lifetime, eliminating the need for surgical replacements. The potential impact on industries and daily life is staggering, from reducing e-waste to powering devices in remote areas.

While the research has shown promising results, In acknowledges that further efforts are needed to optimize the design and increase power generation. As climate concerns grow, public perception of nuclear energy is changing, and with these dual-site-source dye-sensitized betavoltaic cell batteries, safe nuclear energy can be put into devices the size of a finger.

The research was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology Research & Development Program. As we move forward in this exciting new era of battery technology, it’s clear that Su-Il In’s revolutionary nuclear battery is poised to change the world, one device at a time.