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Battery breakthrough from NTU Singapore

Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 6 months ago to Technology
32 comments | Share | Flag

Excerpt:
"With our nanotechnology, electric cars would be able to increase their range dramatically with just five minutes of charging, which is on par with the time needed to pump petrol for current cars," added Prof Chen.

"Equally important, we can now drastically cut down the waste generated by disposed batteries, since our batteries last ten times longer than the current generation of lithium-ion batteries."

The long-life of the new battery also means drivers save on the cost of a battery replacement, which could cost over USD$5,000 each.

Easy to manufacture

According to Frost & Sullivan, a leading growth-consulting firm, the global market of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries is projected to be worth US$23.4 billion in 2016.

Lithium-ion batteries usually use additives to bind the electrodes to the anode, which affects the speed in which electrons and ions can transfer in and out of the batteries.

However, Prof Chen's new cross-linked titanium dioxide nanotube-based electrodes eliminate the need for these additives and can pack more energy into the same amount of space.

"Manufacturing this new nanotube gel is very easy," Prof Chen added. "Titanium dioxide and sodium hydroxide are mixed together and stirred under a certain temperature. Battery manufacturers will find it easy to integrate our new gel into their current production processes."


All Comments

  • Posted by mccwho 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Thank you; I am not exactly well versed in battery technology per say but more of a Renaissance guy. I have a scientific back ground mixed with street smarts, having grown up in poverty and clawed my way up, and still going up (to the top, )I have had over twenty years of business experience. I had a business even when I was working for others and when I served in the military. I always paid attention to the decisions they made and the results of their decisions. So over the years I have developed business wisdom from watching others and learning under their wings. I have read a lot, on a lot of subjects, (a lot) I have made a lot of contacts and built a reputation as a fair but shrewd businessman. AS a result of all of this I have developed a feel for the practical and a talent for thinking things through. Hence my analysis of the logistics needed to support almost any kind of business. I have actually learned some of this from VERY wealthy people (the big B’s $) and have learned to see opportunity’s everywhere. One thing that a very smart guy told me was, “It does not matter what your business is, just learn everything about it, study it from every angle, know it from the inside out. You can run multiple businesses, but know the industries that affect them and then learn them as well.” That is the nugget.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I am sending the results of this inquiry to you
    by private memo, here in the gulch. -- j

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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Hello mccwho,
    Thank you. I will do that search. You seem to be well versed on battery technology. I appreciate that. One thing: Apparently these batteries types are much more sophisticated as far as testing goes. My local auto parts store has a hand held device that he simply clips on to the terminals of my car battery and it tells him instantly if it is low, has a bad cell, or is shorted out... I'm old school... I remember dressing points in my ignition.. Those were the days. :)
    In any case, with fast charging, there will be no need for exchange.
    Regards,
    O.A.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    OK;;; I will inquire over there -- retired from a sister
    facility a few years ago and still have contacts. -- j

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  • Posted by mccwho 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yea, that would be nice . I would like to find the person who is the project leader and get the contract to manufacture these. If I could find this guy I have a pool of venture capitolist to fund the start up.
    And by a strange twist I do have ownership of a large plot of land in Colorado, lol, in an isolated valley near Twin Lakes. No joke. Its been in the family for 100 years. But doubt setting a factory there is practical. More likely location would be between Denver and the Denver airport (distribution via land and air).
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  • Posted by Owlsrayne 9 years, 6 months ago
    I hate to say this but new type of graphene_graphite capacitors are the wave of the future. They are capable of storing more power with very short recharge cycle. Most of this experimentation is being done by garage inventors. There are research facilities that are are working to produce new type of batteries but for the most part this is a dead end. These well funded researchers are not even considering Graphene Capacitors. One thing about this type of capacitors they don't wear out.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    it's a big place -- buildings spread out over a few
    square miles -- we'd need to try to find out where
    this battery work is being done. -- j

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  • Posted by mccwho 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Thats cool. It would be nice to go there someday and take a tour if they have one.

    I live close to Battelle Memorial Institute. I worked there one sumer in the High
    Energy Laser lab while going to college. It is one high security place. They would not even let you go down any other hallway then where you are supposed to be, and rightly so, there is a lot of research going on there.
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  • Posted by mccwho 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    You can find a lot of information on these online now since this discovery is over a year old now. Try searching google for, "Scholarly articles for solid sulfur battery". Not trying to shake off your questions, but just figure it might save some time for you and me and you can get more scientific data that way.
    On the surface I agree with the exchange instead of recharge but the issue with that is you always get the question, "Who is responsible for the bad batteries?" And what if a location has more going out then in, or vice-a-versa? From a business perspective, there would have to be a fee involved that would be enough to cover those and several other logisticical issues, or some semblance of a structured service fee. Because you would also need to invest in testers to test a battery before it goes back out. They could help by putting in electronics to monitor a batteries usage (abuse) and life expectancy based on its cycles of use. Of course that would add to a batteries cost and some of the monitors would inevitably go bad, thusly losing their data. The entire infrastructure to support and exchange program would be doable but someone has to pay for it. When someone has to pay their own money for the consequences of their abuse of a battery they tend to take better care of it.
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Impressive. Is that relative to volume or weight? Do you have any data on recharge time and life cycles? I have often wondered why instead of recharging while on the road they aren't designed for exchange. You could pull into a service station and in five minutes or less slide one battery out on a cart and push another one in. Of course, now, with fast charging this would be unnecessary.
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  • Posted by mccwho 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The energy density for the sulfur battery is approx. 10 times a lithium battery for any given size.
    As with Lithium batteries the cycle life depends on construction. Lithium can be very high, but the cost to make them that way is also very high. In the end sulfur batteries cost less to make and can also have a higher life then currently available lithium batteries but at a lower cost and much safer, in term of flamability. Also there is less impact on the enviroment (mining, processing, etc..) sulfur is very common and easy to get at, lithium is a rare eath. Lithium is used to a small degree in the sulfur battery but no where near the amount in a std. lithium battery. Another point is: the sulfur battery is much easier to recycle and rejuvinate.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Do you have solar panels? I have wondered if the best combination were to be solar (I live in SoCal) and an electric car. I guess the simple question is how much 'over' the size of the solar panels necessary to run your house would you have to get in order to be able to recharge your car too.

    Jan
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Hello term2,
    Aren't there high capacity charging systems already in production that could be adapted? I know my alternator in my car can charge a traditional battery with many more amps and auto repair stations have high capacity fast charge 110 volt to 12 volt units... It would seem this obstacle would be easier to overcome than the battery technology has been...
    I would love to hear your thoughts.
    Respectfully,
    O.A.
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Hello mccwho,
    An interesting article. I would like more details. The real advantage comparing the articles is in the low cost of sulfur due to abundance. They seem to be comparing them to today's commonly used Lithium batteries, not this new variety... What is missing is the lifespan, cycles, charging time, relative size for a given storage capacity... I wonder how a side by side comparison of these metrics would shake out...
    Either way it is a promising development.
    Respectfully,
    O.A.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 9 years, 6 months ago
    I just imagined Obama giving a speech with a backdrop of Chinese human props all holding those little red Mao books I used to see on TV back in the 60s.
    Obama is saying, "Hey, NTU, you didn't build that. Your government did."
    Interchange the speaker with Hillary, who last week gave a similar speech and then a day later claimed that what she said was not what she really said. Or something like that.
    Watch idiots still vote for her.
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  • Posted by term2 9 years, 6 months ago
    There is no free lunch though. The charging units would have to have 20x the amp ratings to get the energy in there. If used for car electric power, wouldnt that be thousands of amps? I have a 2 amp cell phone charger now- wouldnt that mean 40 amps for those 2 minutes. Pretty big change in charger requirements that they dont talk about !!!
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  • Posted by Temlakos 9 years, 6 months ago
    This is the sort of thing that can keep this forum alive: stories of real, live John Galts!
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Not US... Why are we making it difficult here?
    Also, why are we allowing massive unskilled illegal immigration while at the same time not encouraging immigration for the brightest and those that get advanced degrees in our colleges? Our policies make no sense, unless the goal is to lose any edge we once possessed...
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  • Posted by wiggys 9 years, 6 months ago
    can they make flashlight size batteries. while thes batteries may improve the electric car i'd go after the consumer market for small batteries for toys etc. i wouldn't look for it in cars for a longer time than they suggest.
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  • Posted by dbhalling 9 years, 6 months ago
    Very cool. Guess what country is focusing on inventions and patents?
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