New Delhi: Scientists from Canada have come up with next-generation garnet-based batteries which can power various devices and vehicles.
Electric vehicles promise to revolutionise transportation but they need safer, better-performing batteries. Current lithium-ion batteries have several issues, including leakage, poor chemical stability, flammability and limited operating voltage or energy density.
"The technology we have developed would enable absolutely stable, robust, safe, high-powered, all solid-state lithium batteries for future energy storage," said Thangadurai.
Such next-generation batteries have many potential applications, including in electric vehicles, consumer electronics, solid-state gas sensors and electrical grids for storing power generated by renewable energy and providing electricity during peak demand times.
Existing lithium-ion batteries used in electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, as well as in portable electronics, use membranes of organic polymer compounds and lithium salts as the electrolyte.
The electrolyte in a battery separates the two electrodes (the positive cathode and the negative anode) and conducts the lithium ions between the electrodes during charging and discharging cycles.
Currently used organic polymer-based electrolytes are flammable, so fire is a safety issue.
Instead of organic polymers for their battery, researchers used a solid ceramic electrolyte, which does not burn.
The research team also used, for the first time, a technique called atomic layer deposition to place a thin film of aluminum oxide on top of a garnet structure coating the ceramic electrolyte.
(With PTI inputs)
