Research is ongoing to find a stable, high density substitute for lithium-ion battery technology. The latter is approaching its limits, and is not a fail-safe energy source for electric aircraft. Rechargeable batteries containing aluminum have shown promise, although the material fractures when used as a charge-carrier in conventional lithium-ion batteries. A team from Georgia Institute of Technology has come up with a modified aluminum sheet they say resolves this.
Advantages of Their Modified Aluminum Battery
The idea of an aluminum-ion battery is not new, having first attracted battery science interest in the 1970’s. The fascination continues, especially as Wikipedia explains the material has 50-times the density of lithium, and even beats coal on that score.
The Georgia Institute of Technology embarked on their research with two criteria in mind:
- A good battery must be stable with high energy density.
- It must recharge thousands of times, safely and reliably.
However, if they tried using aluminum as the substitute charge-carrier in conventional lithium-ion batteries, they knew they would strike a snag. This was because past experience taught them aluminum fractures, and fails within a few charge / discharge cycles.
They already understood the cause for this failure was expansion and contraction as lithium-ions traveled in and out of the material. They wondered whether they could develop a modified aluminum battery using solid-state technology.
The Georgia Institute of Technology Innovation
The team chose to take a novel approach in conjunction with a leading manufacturer / recycler of aluminum material. They added over 100 additives in turn to pure foil, to “create foils with particular microstructures, or arrangements of different materials” until they achieved success with the soft, silvery additive metal indium.
“This is a story about a material [aluminum]that was known about for a long time, but was largely abandoned early on in battery development,” the lead researcher explains. “But with new knowledge, combined with a new technology – the solid-state battery – we’ve figured out how we can rejuvenate the idea and achieve really promising performance.”
More Information
Radical Aluminum Batteries on the Horizon
Build an Aluminum Air Battery at Home
Preview Image: Aluminum for Solid-State Batteries
