New Batteries That Last More Than 10 Years Developed By Oak Ridge National Lab

A team of researchers from ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) of the Department of Energy has developed a new kind of unusual battery that can last as long as 10 years. Yes, that long. The ORNL research team has went on to publish their studies in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Their study is based on the fact that the cathode, anode and electrolyte in the battery can do more than one role. The newly designed electrolyte developed by the team for use in the decade-long lasting battery plays the role of an ion conductor as well as a cathode supplement. It is this electrolyte that is responsible for boosting the battery's capacity and extending the lifespan it is used in.

The conventional batteries are in for some serious make-over because of this bi-functional electrolyte which aims to bring unheard of before kind energy density to batteries. The team of researchers has used its solid lithium thiophosphate electrolyte in the popular lithium carbon fluoride battery and generated an output that shows 26% higher capacity than the theoretical maximum if each component acted independently. All this is the work of the electrolyte and cathode interacting co-operatively.




The study is published as “Pushing the Theoretical Limit of Li-CFx Batteries: A Tale of Bi-functional Electrolyte.” Coauthors are ORNL’s Ezhiylmurugan Rangasamy, Juchuan Li, Gayatri Sahu, Nancy Dudney and Chengdu Liang. The work was sponsored by the Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering in DOE’s Office of Science.

Such kind of disposable batteries that can last long are in demand in a wide variety of sectors. It can find applications in a lot of things from sensors to RFID devices and artificial cardiac pacemakers to remote keyless systems. The researchers are confident that if engineered well, these batteries may exceed all expectations and last 30 to 50 years.

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