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IPFS News Link • Science, Medicine and Technology

Aluminum "yolk" nanoparticles deliver high-capacity battery recipe

• http://www.gizmag.com, By Dario Borghino

The new electrode, which makes use of aluminum/titanium "yolk-and-shell" nanoparticles, is reportedly simple to manufacture and is especially promising for high-power applications.

The lithium-ion batteries in our phones, tablets and laptops store their energy-carrying ions inside negative electrodes made of graphite. Other electrode materials could in theory do a far better job by packing in more energy, but these alternatives come with their own drawbacks. Lithium could store about 10 times more energy per unit weight than graphite, but it's prone to short-circuiting and catching fire; silicon and tin could also vastly outperform graphite, but only if the battery is charged at a slow rate, which is rarely practical.

Many of the high-capacity alternatives also tend to expand and contract very noticeably as the greatly increased number of lithium ions travel to and from the electrode with each charge cycle. The repeated deformation exerts a strong mechanical stress that, over time, damages the electrode contacts and reduces the cell's capacity.


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