Novel Rechargeable Battery Could Accelerate Shift to Greener Electric Transport
Written by AZoMFeb 2 2021
Scientists from China and the United Kindom have used salt as the main ingredient to design a new kind of rechargeable battery that could expedite the transformation to a greener electric transport on the roads.
A quasi-solid-state (QSS) molten salt electrolyte and the structure of QSS molten salt iron air battery. Image Credit: University of Nottingham.
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which power several electric vehicles (EV), can lose power and energy over time. These batteries can also overheat while charging or working under specific conditions, which could lead to degradation of battery life and a decrease in miles per charge.
Salt battery design could help electric cars go the extra mile theiet.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theiet.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A possible red hot future for electric vehicle batteries
High-temperature batteries could one day power road vehicles, according to the University of Nottingham, which has worked with Chinese universities to take a step forward with molten salt ‘metal-air’ batteries.
Having a battery running at 700-800°C might seem a little impractical.
“This molten salt battery has multiple feasible application directions, and transport is one of these,” Nottingham professor of electro-chemistry George Chen told Electronics Weekly. “It is indeed a high temperature battery, but the working temperature is actually about the same as the temperature of the engine exhaust gas from a petrol or diesel engine. In principle, maintaining the temperature can be achieved by the currents for charging and discharging of the battery, good thermal insulation and some additional electric heating if necessary. An older version of molten salt battery for transport application is the so-called Zebra ba