Laboratory Equipment

Researchers Watch Real-Time Charging of a Lithium-Air Battery

One of the most promising new kinds of battery to power electric cars is called a lithium-air battery, which could store up to four times as much energy per pound as today’s best lithium-ion batteries. But progress has been slow: the nature of the electrochemical reactions as these batteries are charged remains poorly understood.

Researchers at MIT and Sandia National Laboratories have used transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging to observe, at a molecular level, what goes on during a reaction called oxygen evolution as lithium-air batteries charge; this reaction is thought to be a bottleneck limiting further improvements to these batteries. The TEM technique could help in finding ways to make such batteries practical in the near future.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/researchers-watch-real-time-charging-lithium-air-battery

Improving Quality Control of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Researchers at Purdue Univ. have created a new tool to detect flaws in lithium-ion batteries as they are being manufactured, a step toward reducing defects and inconsistencies in the thickness of electrodes that affect battery life and reliability.

The electrodes, called anodes and cathodes, are the building blocks of powerful battery arrays like those used in electric and hybrid vehicles. They are copper on one side and coated with a black compound to store lithium on the other. Lithium ions travel from the anode to the cathode while the battery is being charged and in the reverse direction when discharging energy.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/improving-quality-control-lithium-ion-batteries

‘Superlattice’ Can Boost to Oxygen Reaction in Fuel Cells

New research at MIT could dramatically improve the efficiency of fuel cells, which are considered a promising alternative to batteries for powering everything from electronic devices to cars and homes.

Fuel cells make electricity by combining hydrogen, or hydrocarbon fuels, with oxygen. But the most efficient types, called solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC), have drawbacks that have limited their usefulness — including operating temperatures above 700 C (roughly 1,300 F). Now, MIT researchers have unraveled the properties of a promising alternative material structure for a key component of these devices.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/%E2%80%98superlattice%E2%80%99-can-boost-oxygen-reaction-fuel-cells

Inorganic Nanosheets Enhance Batteries

A graphene inspired electrode material that could help batteries hold more power has been developed by Chinese scientists. The large surface area of these cobalt oxide nanosheets is key to their electrochemical performance.

Batteries are a cornerstone of modern life with most smartphones and laptops using rechargeable lithium ion batteries. As technology advances, the search is on for batteries that can pack more energy into the same space.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/inorganic-nanosheets-enhance-batteries

Researchers Take Next Step for Clean-Tech Cars

Ditching petrol for a clean-tech electric car sounds like an earth-saving move in theory. But if your charge is going to run out half way through your journey, it’s not very practical to make the switch.

Nanoengineer Prof. Zaiping Guo, from Univ. of Wollongong, is working on improving lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries for use in electric vehicles, as well as portable devices like cell phones, and her team has just had a breakthrough. They have developed a new germanium (Ge)-based material with five times more energy storage and the potential to go at least two times farther on a charge than current electric vehicles.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/researchers-take-next-step-clean-tech-cars

U.S. Probes Safety Testing of 787 Batteries

As airlines prepare to resume flying Boeing’s beleaguered 787 Dreamliners, federal investigators looked today at how regulators and the company tested and approved the plane’s cutting-edge battery system, and whether the government cedes too much safety-testing authority to aircraft makers.

The National Transportation Safety Board is also asking how problems with the aircraft’s lithium-ion battery system that led to a fire aboard one plane and smoke in another escaped the notice of regulators and company officials who certified the plane’s safety.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/us-probes-safety-testing-787-batteries

Water Device Charges Cell Phones

A power source for your mobile phone can now be as close as the nearest faucet, stream or even a puddle, with the world’s first water-activated charging device.

Based on micro fuel cell technology developed at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, the MyFC PowerTrekk uses ordinary water to extend battery life for devices of up to 3 watts. Anders Lundblad, KTH researcher and founder of MyFC, says that the device can be powered by fresh or seawater. The water need not be completely clean.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/water-device-charges-cell-phones

Despite Beliefs, Lithium-Ion Batteries Have Memory Effect

Lithium-ion batteries are high performance energy storage devices used in many commercial electronic appliances. Certainly, they can store a large amount of energy in a relatively small volume. They have also previously been widely believed to exhibit no memory effect. That’s how experts call a deviation in the working voltage of the battery, caused by incomplete charging or discharging, that can lead to only part of the stored energy being available and an inability to determine the charge level of the battery reliably. Scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), together with colleagues from the Toyota Research Laboratories in Japan have now however discovered that a widely-used type of lithium-ion battery has a memory effect. This discovery is of particularly high relevance for advances towards using lithium-ion batteries in the electric vehicle market.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/despite-beliefs-lithium-ion-batteries-have-memory-effect

Electric Car Batteries Last 5 to 20 Years

Scientists today answered a question that worries millions of owners and potential owners of electric and hybrid vehicles using lithium-ion batteries: how long before the battery pack dies, leaving a sticker-shock bill for a fresh pack or a car ready for the junk heap? Their answer, presented at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), may surprise skeptics.

“The battery pack could be used during a quite reasonable period of time ranging from five to 20 years depending on many factors,” says Mikael Cugnet. “That’s good news when you consider that some estimates put the average life expectancy of a new car at about eight years.”

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/electric-car-batteries-last-5-20-years

Tin Nanocrystals Key to Future Batteries

They provide power for electric cars, electric bicycles, smartphones and laptops; nowadays, rechargeable lithium ion batteries are the storage media of choice when it comes to supplying a large amount of energy in a small space and light weight. All over the world, scientists are currently researching a new generation of such batteries with an improved performance. Scientists headed by Maksym Kovalenko from the Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry at ETH Zurich and Empa have now developed a nanomaterial that enables considerably more power to be stored in lithium ion batteries.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/tin-nanocrystals-key-future-batteries

Boeing 787 Checks Battery with Test Flight

A Boeing 787 with a redesigned battery system made a 2-hour test flight. The company says the event “went according to plan.”

The test flight was an important step in Boeing Co.’s plan to convince safety regulators to let airlines resume using the plane, which the company calls the Dreamliner.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/03/boeing-787-checks-battery-test-flight

Bio-Batteries Breathe Oxygen

An air-breathing bio-battery has been constructed by researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The core element providing the new power source with relatively high voltage and a long lifetime is a carefully designed cathode that takes up oxygen from air and is composed of an enzyme, carbon nanotubes and silicate.

People are increasingly taking advantage of devices supporting various functions of our bodies. Today they include cardiac pacemakers or hearing aids; tomorrow it will be contact lenses with automatically changing focal length or computer-controlled displays generating images directly in the eye. None of these devices will work if not coupled to an efficient and long-lasting power supply source. The best solution seems to be miniaturized biofuel cells consuming substances naturally occurring in human body or in its direct surrounding.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/03/bio-batteries-breathe-oxygen

Scientists Calculate Carbon Footprint of Large Batteries

Americans take electrical power for granted whenever they flip on a light switch. But the growing use of solar and wind power in the U.S. makes the on-demand delivery of electricity more challenging.

A key problem is that the U.S. electrical grid has virtually no storage capacity, so grid operators can’t stockpile surplus clean energy and deliver it at night, or when the wind isn’t blowing.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/03/scientists-calculate-carbon-footprint-large-batteries