the world for a long time batteries dominated by lithium. In general, their good behavior, especially the high energy density they can store – this makes them indispensable. But at the moment, things are not so positive, and this material is becoming less and less, and its price is increasing rapidly. Some MIT engineers demonstrated a good solution using other materials.
Developed and patented at a company called Avanti (where large-scale testing with high-intensity testing has already begun), the new batteries have as their core elements: aluminum and sulfur – used in each of the electrodes. And we should also add: Salt as the electrolyte. That is why we are talking about very cheap and easy to obtain materials.
Many virtues that make these new batteries ideal
Apart from the economic factor, which is not exactly less and these new batteries surpass lithium batteries, it must be said that this new development meets the requirements for this type of element. Therefore, for example, the materials used they are not flammabletherefore there is no risk of explosion or fire in case of impact or high temperature problems (we are talking about withstand temperatures up to 200 degrees without fail).
An important detail is that salt has proven to be very effective as an electrolyte. Besides offering a low melting point, it also prevents dendrite formation which is one of the main reasons why short circuits appear between the electrodes and in lithium batteries, and therefore they stop working.
Developed with common materials at MIT, another nice feature of these batteries is durability is excellent. Thus, it has been confirmed in the tests that the integrated cells offer hundreds of supports. loads without any abrasion. Beside speed what they offer is amazing, because we’re talking 0 to 100 in less than a minute, something that would make them perfect for use in both mobile devices and electric cars. Therefore, we are talking about a rather effective discovery.
a hopeful future
Given the challenges of maintaining adequate progress with lithium batteries, both in terms of increasing their capacity and utilizing the material itself, this development is encouraging as we are talking about an easy-to-use and inexpensive option. . So much so that calculated by the explorers the price of these batteries would have been one-sixth of today’s price. And best of all, materials are available almost everywhere – and therefore there will be no shortage of them to ensure their universalization.
Source: Cincodias Elpais
