tackling lithium battery degradation

[ChaosLegionnaire]

California startup aims to tackle battery degradation in electric cars

Lithium-ion batteries are essential to electric vehicles, but they have drawbacks: They are hard to make and degrade over time.

A San Leandro, California-based start-up on Thursday said it had raised $4 million in funding and is working with German chemical giant BASF SE on a new technology to tackle those problems, aiming one day to reduce the cost of lithium ion batteries while boosting their capacities and extending their lifetimes.

Coreshell Technologies makes a coating that would go directly onto the surface of the electrodes in lithium-ion batteries.

To produce power, lithium ions move back and forth between electrodes inside the battery. But as they pass through layers, some of the lithium gets stuck, both depleting it and making it harder for remaining ions to move back and forth.

Coreshell said its coating allows the lithium to pass through more easily and without getting stuck, which speeds up the break-in process during battery manufacturing, allows less lithium to be used and could mean longer battery life. But the key advance, the company's founders said, was figuring out how to apply the coating in a liquid form as the electrode layers are manufactured on “roll-to-roll” machinery that resembles a newspaper printing press.

“It has to fit into that style of processing” to be economically feasible, said Jonathan Tan, the company's CEO and co-founder. “And that's not something that anyone has been able to do before with these coatings.”

read more @ Reuters

so any one have any ideas on how to apply the coating on the manufacturing line? if u do, go straight to coreshell tech at san leandro and sign up for a job there! lol!

[eccerr0r]

Re: tackling lithium battery degradation

Cheap, long life, small/lightweight - pick two.

[redwire]

Re: tackling lithium battery degradation

Mention "improved lithium battery" and money will fall from the sky. Everybody says this to get investors, grants and hype etc.
So far I haven't seen anything great for battery tech. Adding carbon nanotubes has been talked about for a decade or so, even to lead-acid plates.

I did read the found lithium batteries discharged and then slowly charged at first, form smaller, finer crystals at the anode: "glassy lithium"

[momaka]

Re: tackling lithium battery degradation

Cheap, long life, small/lightweight - pick two.

I pick AC power cord - it's all of the above.

[eccerr0r]

Re: tackling lithium battery degradation

Imagine if every electric car out there needed a constant connection to a power cord to move...

[redwire]

Re: tackling lithium battery degradation

Wile E. Coyote already tried the extension cord approach. ACME seems to make them too short though.

[Per Hansson]

Re: tackling lithium battery degradation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybus

[eccerr0r]

Re: tackling lithium battery degradation

Wile E. Coyote already tried the extension cord approach. ACME seems to make them too short though.

Looks like we have prior art on this!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybus

Works fine for mass transit, not for personal vehicles...

[momaka]

Re: tackling lithium battery degradation

Works fine for mass transit, not for personal vehicles...

It could work for personal vehicles - at least in the city. It would just have to be a lot more elaborate (and may not look as pretty with so many wires hanging above every street.)

As a side idea, perhaps they should add a roof on top of the wires, similar to how bumper cars in amusement parks have/had it (are those still a thing today?) While at it, why not even make the cars truly bumper cars? Given the traffic we have here in Northern VA (one of the worst areas for traffic in the US, right beside New York and L.A.), this could actually be quite fun - instead of sitting still in a traffic jam, you could just ram the crap out of the cars near ya!

Wile E. Coyote already tried the extension cord approach. ACME seems to make them too short though.

An ironic predicament of what cheap electronic goods would look like many years later in the future (that is, today.)

[eccerr0r]

Re: tackling lithium battery degradation

Just think of the RFI too. You'd have to basically have a mesh of wire above every road that cars have an antenna dragging across. Not feasible IMHO.

It's really car companies and wallet sizes to make bumper cars in general, then again ramming someone at 80MPH is still going to generate mass*velocity worth of momentum. Car may survive, people may not. And there will still be the people who want the 'bigger' bumper car just because...

BTW I wonder if bumper cars could transition to battery operation some day too... then again if the infrastructure is already there, then no way...

[momaka]

Re: tackling lithium battery degradation

It's really car companies and wallet sizes to make bumper cars in general, then again ramming someone at 80MPH is still going to generate mass*velocity worth of momentum. Car may survive, people may not. And there will still be the people who want the 'bigger' bumper car just because...

I think you missed my sarcasm - no one here can drive even 8 MPH in rush hour, let alone 80. Hence the bumper cars joke.
Obviously it still wouldn't make sense.

Although in a small city, again, it may be doable provided the infrastructure is only meant for the cars that stay in the city.

[eccerr0r]

Re: tackling lithium battery degradation

I sure hope those who really want such to not get any bright ideas to simply push people away if they are blocked, have no consequential damage, and the excuse to get the biggest car possible...