The polar vortex extreme weather event of late January 2019 was a warning to battery scientists. That’s because electric vehicle ranges decreased, although the batteries later recovered. Lead-acid starter batteries were less fortunate though. Battery shops had a busy time. This may have been what inspired scientists at Fudan University in Shanghai, China to investigate lithium-ion-based low temperature batteries.
Climate Change Behind Low Temperature Batteries
We are entering a period of extreme low and high temperature events. Therefore, our reliance on batteries for portable electronic devices compels us to find solutions. Moreover, it is extremely cold during a Martian winter, not to mention far out in space in a NASA probe.
First, Yonggang Wang, Yongyao Xia and their colleagues at Fudan University built battery electrodes out of organic polymers. We find these natural macro molecules in living organisms. These building blocks of life include proteins, cellulose, and nucleic acids. Organic polymers are also the cornerstones of diamonds, quartz, feldspar, concrete, glass, paper, plastics, and rubbers.
Then the Fudan University scientists teamed their polymer electrodes with a low-freezing point solvent electrolyte to allow exchange of ions and it worked!.
Yonggang Wang, Yongyao Xia’s Ground-Breaking Battery Success
The Fudan University scientists teamed their polymer electrodes with a low-freezing-point solvent-electrolyte to allow exchange of ions. “At −70 °C, the team’s battery retained 21% of the capacity it had at room temperature,” website Nature confirms. However, the new low temperature batteries are bulkier than lead-acid ones providing the same energy.
None the less, they have potential for supplying bursts of power in frigid environments. Conventional electrolytes become sluggish at low temperatures slowing chemical reactions in batteries. However Yonggang Wang and Yongyao Xia’s initiative in using an ethyl acetate-based electrolyte appears to have enabled their break through.
Readers with an abiding interest in chemistry may like to know they used a poly triphenyl amine cathode and a naphtha enetetra carboxylic dianhydride anode. However, the low temperature batteries lack adequate density for commercial operation, and hence there is still work to be done.
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Preview Image: Mars Ice Home (Artist Impression)
