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battery technology

With the gradual shift to electric vehicles, demand for newer batteries that last longer and provide more power has risen sharply in the past decade. Current electric cars have less power than gasoline vehicles, and they are limited to round trips of just over 100 miles. New battery technologies may soon allow electric cars to drive up to five times that distance.

battery

Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes are incredibly tiny and full of potential. Scientists believe that they may one day allow us to speed up our computers, and improve hybrid vehicles. Batteries that use carbon nanotubes can transfer electricity much faster than current batteries.

What does this new battery technology mean for consumers? For starters, these batteries will provide a significant increase to horsepower for everything from electric lawn mowers to cars. Manufacturers are also looking at combining these batteries with solid-state capacitors, so consumers would also benefit from improved capacity.

Lithium Silicon

Silicon is a fantastic energy storage material because it can store far more electricity than conventional batteries. Unfortunately, it suffers from one fundamental problem that has baffled researchers for decades. As silicon is charged with ions, it expands to up to three times its normal size. When it shrinks during discharge, silicon breaks its own connections, and it loses its ability to charge and discharge.

Scientists around the world are researching how to overcome this obstacle. Harold H. Kung of Northwestern University believes that flexible electrodes can adapt to silicon's expansion without breaking the battery's internal connections. Dr. Kung also believes that lithium silicon batteries will be able to charge far more quickly than traditional batteries because of these enhanced electrodes, which could help electric cars fully charge in several hours instead of overnight.

Copper Nanowire Cathode

Unlike the previous two examples, copper nanowire cathodes already exist. Instead of storing lithium ions on a two-dimensional surface, copper nanowire cathode batteries store them on three-dimensional cylinders.

Because this battery technology exponentially increases surface area, copper nanowire cathode batteries have greatly increased capacities, and they can charge and discharge more quickly than conventional two-dimensional cathodes. This technology is so promising that it progressed from concept to prototype in just three years, which is a mere blink of the eye for science.

Zinc-Bromine Battery

Although the previous batteries on this list feature improved capacities and shorter charge times, each will still require several hours to fully charge. If you run out of juice in your electric vehicle, your only recourse is to plug it into a wall socket and wait a few hours.

Zinc-bromine batteries may soon change our very concept of what a battery can do. In many ways, they are closer to fuel cells than traditional batteries. They can be recharged from a wall outlet, or they can be refilled.

The ability to both recharge and refill is a powerful advantage. Rechargeable batteries allow early adopters to use their vehicles even when refill stations are not available. This advantage would allow zinc-bromine batteries to overcome one of the hydrogen fuel cell's biggest barriers to mass production.

Current zinc-bromine batteries have up to three times the energy density of conventional batteries, which would reduce an electric vehicle's weight while increasing its driving range. These batteries can also be fully discharged with no loss to capacity or efficiency, so electric vehicle owners would never have to worry about full discharges again.