News
News
March 31, 2015
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 […]
March 29, 2015
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 […]
March 24, 2015
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 […]
March 17, 2015
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 […]
March 11, 2015
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 […]
March 8, 2015
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, […]
February 26, 2015
One of the top energy solutions companies in the world, Samsung SDI Company, is acquiring the battery pack business of the automotive supplier Magna International, according to recent reports. The acquisition is intended to support and improve the company’s electric vehicle (EV) battery business — by adding the expertise (in […]
February 24, 2015
Conventional wisdom has it that lithium-ion batteries are the state of the art, and that nickel-metal hydride chemistry, which is used in most conventional hybrids (some of the newer Prius models now use Li-ion), is pretty much obsolete. However, scientists at BASF believe that NiMH technology still has much to […]
February 21, 2015
One of the biggest statements on Tesla’s last quarterly conference call was that it would be unveiling a battery storage system for home use within 1–2 months. I know that several competing energy storage companies are watching closely to see what the details (especially price) end up being… while surely also being […]
February 19, 2015
Liechtenstein-based nanoFlowcell AG has taken a different approach to battery design. Its vehicles use a flow battery system which works like a combination of a battery and a fuel cell, using liquid electrolytes kept in two tanks and pumped through the cell. At the heart of the system is a membrane that […]
February 17, 2015
Nanostructured electrodes in Li-ion batteries have several advantages, including shorter distances for charge-carrying particles to travel and a high surface area that provides more active sites for electrochemical reactions to occur. However, working with nanoscale materials is tricky – due to their tiny size, they can be hard to control […]