Monday, October 30, 2017

Rice University Researchers Make Advancement on Lithium Batteries

Researchers at Rice University in Houston have figured out an advance in the area of lithium-ion batteries, saying they have discovered that "defects" in the materials used for those batteries can potentially improve the performance of the common battery technology. The researchers--led by Rice materials scientist Ming Tang, along with chemists Song Jin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Linsen Li at Wisconsin and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology--found that unintentional "defects" in lithium materials could be used to create high-performance electrodes for lithium-ion batteries. Manufacturers have been focused on removing the defects--with great difficulty--from the common cathode material, olivine lithium iron phosphate. Instead, the researchers said those defects "are a feature, not a bug." The advance could help manufacturers develop better lithium-ion batteries that power electronic devices worldwide, according to Rice.