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Solid-state electrolytes are the talk of the town these days. California-based PATHION has been working to commercialize solid electrolytes since its founding in 2012, building on its exclusive license from Los Alamos National Laboratories for a promising material called Lithium-Rich Anti-Perovskite (LiRAP). At the recent Materials Research Conference, PATHION presented two new […]

EV heating and cooling presents a dilemma: how to keep a vehicle’s occupants comfortable without draining the battery? Engineers are working on various solutions, from heat pumps and adsorption chillers to passenger-focused AC and heat. A group of researchers from the University of Utah, HRL Laboratories and GM Global R&D […]

With the development process of the first gigafactory apparently going quite smoothly, Tesla Motors is apparently already busy courting Japanese battery suppliers with regard to a potential second gigafactory. This possible second gigafactory would of course be located outside of North America, and seems quite sensible in many ways. Considering […]

A fresh look at actual driving records has yielded a surprising (to some) conclusion about the useful lifespan of electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Conventional wisdom has it that EV drivers will ditch their ride after the battery loses 20% of its storage capacity, but our friends over at Lawrence Berkeley […]

The Volkswagen Group’s decision on what exactly to do with the solid-state energy storage technology currently under development by the company QuantumScape will be made sometime before July, according to a recent report from Bloomberg. That report — which cited the Chairman of the Board of Management, Professor Martin Winterkorn […]

Lithium-sulfur batteries are one of the hottest topics in the battery field today, as they could theoretically offer energy density up to four times higher than that of lithium-ion batteries. However, one of several challenges to be overcome is finding cathode materials that demonstrate long-term stability. An international team of […]

The curious case of ionic liquids: Boulder Ionics/CoorsTek Specialty Chemicals Iolyte electrolytes When you think of liquids under the brand name Coors, you think of the Silver Bullet, the Banquet Beer. You certainly don’t think of high technology, unless you’re really easily impressed by cold-activated cans. However, not everyone knows that […]

Scientists at the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have captured the first real-time nanoscale images of lithium dendrite structures in lithium-ion batteries. The ORNL team is confident that its research, published in Nano Letters, will be of great benefit to scientists who are experimenting with different ways to tackle the […]

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a new zinc-polyiodide redox flow battery that could offer more than two times the energy density of existing designs. Flow batteries, which use ionized liquids stored in external tanks in place of traditional electrolytes, have garnered a lot of publicity lately, […]