Flat batteries in our flashlights appeared to work for a short while, twenty-four hours later when we were kids. Scientists at Stanford University have found that resting a battery restores lithium-metal performance. Laura Merrill explains how grains of lithium can become separated from the anode in Nature Journal. But, allowing the battery time to recover could reinstate them.
Resting a Battery Boosts Electric Car Performance
Anthony Cuthbertson gathered the threads together the following day at The Independent. He explained how resting a battery containing lithium-metal chemistry recovers lost capacity, and extends the period between charges.
Lithium-metal batteries could potentially replace lithium-ion chemistry, but for one thing. They lose their capacity quickly, and that’s a deal breaker. We wondered whether this research could be a cheap, easy way to double up on electric vehicle driving range.
Wenbo Zhang is a Stanford PhD student who co-led the research. “We found that if the battery rests in the discharged state for just one hour,” he told media. ‘Then some of the decomposed electrolyte surrounding the dead lithium [at the solid electrolyte interface]dissolves away.”
“So when you recharge the battery, the dead lithium will reconnect with the anode, because there’s less solid mass getting in the way.” This discovery means a lithium-metal battery could potentially deliver twice the driving range of a lithium-ion one.
More Details About the Stanford University Research
Interesting Engineering explains how the team first discharged a lithium-metal battery completely. This removed all the active metallic lithium, leaving only inactive material at the solid electrolyte interface. Then they noticed how some of the dead lithium ‘dissolved within an hour’.
This allowed the dead lithium ‘to reconnect with the anode upon recharging’. Resting a battery this way could be compatible with the average city-commuter’s driving pattern. All that’s needed is to rewrite the battery management code, according to PhD student Wenbo Zhang.
More Information
Charging Lithium-Metal with Ultrasound
Lithium-Metal Batteries, Are They For Real?
Preview Image: Dead Lithium In Discharged Battery
