About the development of a better battery

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the current obstacles in the development of batteries, particularly focusing on various aspects such as size (pocket-sized, car-sized, etc.), safety concerns, and technological advancements. Participants explore different battery types and their associated challenges, including material properties and manufacturing processes.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants highlight the difficulty in identifying specific obstacles in battery development due to the vast number of research teams and ideas being explored.
  • There is mention of safety concerns related to lithium-based batteries, particularly referencing past incidents with exploding batteries.
  • One participant discusses the potential for improving battery capacity by increasing electrode surface area, but notes the challenge of maintaining durability during charge/discharge cycles.
  • Concerns are raised about the commercial viability of new battery technologies, including the financial pressures of selling existing products to fund new developments.
  • Participants express interest in alternative battery technologies, such as plastic electrolyte batteries, while questioning their potential downsides.
  • There is a mention of advancements in the aircraft industry towards electrification and a specific technology called nanoelectrofuel flow batteries, which may address energy storage challenges.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the major obstacles in battery development, as multiple competing views and concerns are presented throughout the discussion.

Contextual Notes

Participants express uncertainty regarding the specific downsides of newer battery technologies and the implications of safety in energy storage. There are also references to the challenges of integrating new battery technologies into existing electric vehicles.

spideyjj
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What are the major obstacles in the development of battery encountered currently? Or there are different difficulties in different aspects? I have tried to search it online but it's like searching for a needle in a haystack.
 
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spideyjj said:
What are the major obstacles in the development of battery encountered currently? Or there are different difficulties in different aspects? I have tried to search it online but it's like searching for a needle in a haystack.
It is a stack. A stack of hundreds of teams researching hundreds out ideas and battery types.

Can you narrow your interest? Pocket size, or car size, or household size, or utility grid size?
 
anorlunda said:
It is a stack. A stack of hundreds of teams researching hundreds out ideas and battery types.

Can you narrow your interest? Pocket size, or car size, or household size, or utility grid size?
The pocket size, like the one in mobile phones
 
anorlunda said:
very cautious
Li plus "wet" solvents/electrolytes equals "big boom."
 
One problem as I understand it is this...

You can improve the capacity of a battery by increasing the surface area of the electrodes. One way to do this is to give them a rough texture, perhaps by coating them with ultra fine pointy crystals, hair like structures or nano tubes. This works however the fragile surface can be damaged by the charge/discharge process so the capacity of the cell degrades over time. The/a problem is to make a cell with good capacity that will also cope with the stresses of cycling or rapid charging without degrading too fast.
 
CWatters said:
Sadly not viewable in the UK.
That IS sad. Not even on youtube ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4McN9OYDwg

They didn't mention what is the downside to that plastic electrolyte battery. They drove nails through it, cut it with shears, and it kept on powering his tablet phone.. Looks too good to be true , but Nova is generally not prone to exaggeration...

old jim
 
  • #10
jim hardy said:
That IS sad. Not even on youtube ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4McN9OYDwg

They didn't mention what is the downside to that plastic electrolyte battery. They drove nails through it, cut it with shears, and it kept on powering his tablet phone.. Looks too good to be true , but Nova is generally not prone to exaggeration...

old jim
Thanks that worked.
 
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  • #11
spideyjj said:
What are the major obstacles in the development of battery encountered currently?
The obvious major obstacle is selling enough of the previous generation, to pay for the engineers to design and build the next generation. This is made more difficult by hyping the next generation before it is available.

Insurance is also expensive. Every form of stored energy is dangerous, because that energy might escape.
 
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  • #12
I've flown electric powered model aircraft since 1984 and I still have one built in 1986. As you can imagine it's had several generations of NiCad, NiMh and may one day get upgraded to Li cells.

It's a shame electric car makers seem unable to find a way to allow this. If I buy a 5 year old electric car who can sell me a battery that uses today's cells for it?
 
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  • #13
CWatters said:
It's a shame electric car makers seem unable to find a way to allow this. If I buy a 5 year old electric car who can sell me a battery that uses today's cells for it?
That's why I bought a camera which works with 4X AA cells. There was other types with different batteries - almost all type had different type of batteries, actually - but all those will be out of spares within a few years, while for this one I think I'll be able to get spares for some decades: both rechargeable and single use.

AA will outlive everything.
 
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  • #14
The aircraft industry is moving more and more to electrification. One big problem is energy storage and charging with current battery technology. Argonne Nat. Lab/Ill. Inst. of Tech. may have an answer with what is called a nanoelectrofuel flow battery. Using positive and negative charge fluids and ion exchange membranes, the fluids are circulated by the membranes draining the charge from the fluids. The advantage is high power density and the fact that the battery is rapidly charged by replacing the fluids making charge storage similar to conventional fuel storage.

https://www1.anl.gov/sites/anl.gov/files/es_nanoelectrofuels-broch-tech_0.pdf
 

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