[HN Gopher] Argonne: Lithium-Air battery 1200 wh/kg, 1000 cycles
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       Argonne: Lithium-Air battery 1200 wh/kg, 1000 cycles
        
       Author : AtlasBarfed
       Score  : 157 points
       Date   : 2023-02-23 18:21 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.anl.gov)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.anl.gov)
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | Actual paper, paywalled: [1] (Why is this paywalled? It's work
       | done by U.S. Government employees and thus cannot be
       | copyrighted.)
       | 
       | This is a huge advance if it works. But we've heard this before.
       | People have been fooling around with lithium-air batteries since
       | the 1970s.
       | 
       | Previous breakthrough announced in 2022: [2]
       | 
       | Previous "breakthrough" announced in 2021: [3]
       | 
       | Another "breakthrough" announced in 2021: [4]
       | 
       | Not clear if this really runs on "air", or whether it needs a
       | clean gas mixture. Water vapor has caused problems with previous
       | lithium-air systems. That's not a killer problem, though;
       | extracting clean oxygen from air is not that hard. Nor is
       | removing water.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq1347
       | 
       | [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2022/02/01/how-
       | thi...
       | 
       | [3]
       | https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210506104801.h...
       | 
       | [4] https://www.advancedsciencenews.com/breakthrough-design-
       | offe...
        
         | rsfern wrote:
         | Here you go
         | https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368171693_A_room_te...
         | 
         | I don't know about Argonne, but at NIST all our papers are
         | supposed to have full text up on PubMed within I think a year.
         | I try to post to arxiv when I submit to the journal. Ironically
         | paywall journals are easier for us from a budget perspective
         | because we don't really have dedicated funds for article fees
         | like academics get with NSF funding
         | 
         | Edit: I just saw that it's "request full text", which I found
         | disappointing
        
           | Animats wrote:
           | Right. I've been looking around for the full text, but
           | haven't found it.
           | 
           | It's really annoying for papers which could be world changing
           | if true. This is either a huge advance or there's some reason
           | it won't work in practice.
        
       | rgmerk wrote:
       | Commentators thus far seem mainly interested in applications in
       | cars, in the event this ever makes it out of the lab.
       | 
       | Frankly, cars are not the big deal here. Existing battery
       | technology is good enough for most light vehicle applications,
       | and continues to incrementally improve. A lithium-air battery car
       | could be even better and would solve most of the edge cases (the
       | people who want to tow horse floats across the country at 70mph,
       | for instance, or for lightweight electric sports cars).
       | 
       | However, this would be a transformative technology for electric
       | aviation.
       | 
       | Delivery drones double or triple their useful range. Air taxis go
       | from pushing the limits of structural engineering to being easily
       | doable. Short-haul all-electric airliners become plausible.
        
         | geff82 wrote:
         | As a private pilot I am SO looking forward to finally be able
         | to do away with piston engines and fly electric...
        
         | nlitened wrote:
         | Airliners? Just give me a damn iPhone that reliably lasts a
         | full day of work.
        
           | squarefoot wrote:
           | They could have made it years ago, but in advertising
           | dominated by design, being thin wins over battery life any
           | day.
        
         | jojobas wrote:
         | This is a bit shallow a take. Current batteries may be wrangled
         | to provide adequate range to cars, but it comes at a
         | significant weight/volume knock-on costs.
         | 
         | A large heavy battery requires increased weights of shielding
         | and frame structure, it's almost exponential. Tesla 3 battery
         | weighs more than its max payload.
        
       | pengaru wrote:
       | > For over a decade, scientists at Argonne and elsewhere have
       | been working overtime to develop a lithium battery that makes use
       | of the oxygen in air
       | 
       | If only we could have EV batteries instead make use of CO2 in the
       | air...
        
       | scythe wrote:
       | >With further development, we expect our new design for the
       | lithium-air battery to also reach a record energy density of 1200
       | watt-hours per kilogram
       | 
       | "With further development". Somewhat misleading title. From the
       | published paper:
       | 
       | >The results shown in fig. S9 indicate that this solid-state Li-
       | air battery cell can work up to a capacity of ~10.4 mAh/cm2,
       | resulting in a specific energy of ~685 Wh/kgcell.
       | 
       | https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq1347
       | 
       | Still impressive, but not 1200 Wh/kg!
        
       | AtlasBarfed wrote:
       | If commercialized in similar stats, a million mile lifetime
       | battery in a Tesla Model S:
       | 
       | 250 kilowatt hour battery ~ 1000 mile range battery would weight
       | 208 pounds, although pack would probably be more than raw cell
       | weight, let's say 250 pounds. Current Tesla model S is a 1100
       | pound pack.
       | 
       | Because you are chopping off almost 1000 pounds in pack weight,
       | the car would go even further than current tesla effeciency
       | because of the BEV "rocket equation".
       | 
       | The battery uses oxygen from the air, not purified oxygen unlike
       | others. It is a solid battery design as well, so it should be
       | compact. Materials are claimed to be common.
       | 
       | Of course it can be hard to tell the path to commercialization.
       | Usually research cells are very small, a far cry from BEV / grid
       | and other commercial scale cells.
       | 
       | Five years ago they were at 750 cycles
       | (https://today.uic.edu/new-design-produces-true-lithium-
       | air-b...), unreported density.
        
         | java-man wrote:
         | Are there any poisoning effects from gases present in the air,
         | like water vapor?
        
           | chongli wrote:
           | The air intake could have filters, dehumidification, and
           | drying via desiccant. I can't imagine they would just run
           | plain atmospheric air with all its pollutants through such a
           | high efficiency, high energy battery.
        
           | marcosdumay wrote:
           | The material resulting from discharge (Li2O) is _very_
           | stable. Water (or LiOH) would break down before it on the
           | charging process. There isn 't a lot of stuff on the air that
           | could contaminate it.
        
       | ttul wrote:
       | Assuming a human can carry 20kg with relative ease (say, in a
       | backpack or strapped to a bike), this new battery allows one to
       | carry around 24kWh - enough to run a North American house for
       | several hours. Or to drive an e-bike for 1,000 miles... Really
       | stretches the imagination.
        
         | SoftTalker wrote:
         | Or they could carry about 2 liters of kerosene.
        
           | ttul wrote:
           | Kerosene contains 10 kWh of potential energy per liter (about
           | 800g). So yes you'd need 3kg of kerosene to provide 24kWh of
           | energy. But that is heat energy.
           | 
           | An efficient gasoline generator produces 1.7kWh per liter. So
           | for 24kWh, you'd need to consume 14L of gasoline and also
           | carry around the generator. I would personally prefer the
           | battery option.
        
             | mdp2021 wrote:
             | > _An efficient gasoline generator_
             | 
             | And how much does it weigh?
        
               | Dylan16807 wrote:
               | The smallest one I can easily find is 10kg.
        
           | rini17 wrote:
           | Plus a machinery to convert it to electricity :)
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | riazrizvi wrote:
             | Perhaps convert an old lawnmower and power drill to power
             | one's desktop PC? Simple and perfectly safe/convenient with
             | additional respirator and ear defenders.
        
               | nielsbot wrote:
               | Cue this old Nissan Leaf ad: gas powered everything
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn__9hLJKAk
        
               | whitexn--g28h wrote:
               | Wow 11 years ago. i switched to an electric car recently
               | and still frequently smell exhaust fumes from cars that
               | are running rich or burning motor oil. I might be alive
               | to see the end of internal combustion engines in cities
               | which seems inevitable now.
        
               | screwturner68 wrote:
               | Living in a urban area I can see the end of the ICE in
               | the next 10-15 years. The game changer in my opinion is
               | the ebike, if we can get just a slight shift in thinking,
               | eg taking the ebike to the gym or store instead of
               | driving an ICE car doesn't stand a chance in the city.
        
         | droopyEyelids wrote:
         | It's odd to think about the danger of such concentrated energy
         | sources. Right now I'd treat a couple gallons of kerosene with
         | way more respect than a battery. But if this battery tech was
         | deployed, it could be more dangerous than liquid fuels in
         | certain ways.
        
           | Animats wrote:
           | > Right now I'd treat a couple gallons of kerosene with way
           | more respect than a battery.
           | 
           | Lithium-ion batteries are far worse than kerosene as a
           | hazard. New York City has a big and growing problem with
           | people charging scooter-sized electric vehicles in
           | apartments.[1]
           | 
           | [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/nyregion/lithium-ion-
           | batt...
        
           | frankus wrote:
           | It largely depends on how easy it is to get the energy out
           | all at once.
           | 
           | A stick of butter represents about 1kWh of chemical energy,
           | and a 2000kg vehicle at 225 km/hr represents about 1kWh of
           | kinetic energy. The latter is intuitively more dangerous
           | because the energy could easily be transferred (to e.g. a
           | person standing in its path) in an instant.
           | 
           | Heck the specific energy of any given piece of matter is c
           | squared, but we don't (as of yet) know how to get it out
           | except under a few very special circumstances :)
        
         | michaelteter wrote:
         | > Assuming a human can carry 20kg
         | 
         | 20 pounds maybe... but 20kg (44lb) would be a serious effort
         | for most people.
        
           | d3ckard wrote:
           | My kid weights 14kg and my 60 kg wife can still pick him up
           | and walk with him. 20 kg with a good backpack is achievable
           | to pretty much everyone.
        
             | michaelteter wrote:
             | Yes it's possible, but it's not something the average
             | person can do for very long.
             | 
             | I can squat 1.5X my own weight, but I still get pretty
             | tired carrying a mere 12kg backpack through a long airport
             | walk. Sure you can build up to carrying 20kg all the time,
             | but it's not normal for most people in the world. And it
             | would not be accepted as reasonable by the people in the
             | world who could afford it.
        
               | Robotbeat wrote:
               | The key is a good pack like that used for hiking with a
               | proper frame and a large padded belt, not a normal school
               | type backpack that you carry just on your shoulders
               | (often just slung over one shoulder). The proper pack
               | setup loads your muscles more like squatting. The
               | difference is pretty striking. I think 20kg is
               | appropriate in that instance.
               | 
               | (Normal guideline is hike pack should not be more than a
               | third your body weight to avoid injury, which for the
               | average American male would be 60 pounds and the average
               | American female would be 50 pounds... there's enough
               | margin so that even if you're talking just those in a
               | healthy BMI of like 23, there's enough for a 44 pound
               | pack for the average height American male and female.)
        
               | brianwawok wrote:
               | You need a good framed backpack. Not all backpacks are
               | the same.
        
               | ben7799 wrote:
               | Soldiers are routinely expected to carry far more than
               | this. They may be carrying it in a more effective pack
               | and/or distributed over more of their body.
               | 
               | Quick google search indicates plenty of US Troops were
               | hauling 90+ pounds of gear around in Iraq and Afghanistan
               | due to need to carry a pack + body armor + weapons.
               | 
               | I'm no soldier but I have certainly hiked with a 50lb
               | load in a good internal frame pack.
               | 
               | And in any case the eBike example was listed. 50lb is not
               | a very heavy load on a bicycle at all. But a battery like
               | this would be better used to make an eBike much lighter.
               | Today they are comically heavy in ways that creates all
               | kinds of extra problems.
               | 
               | If you make the battery 1/4 of the weight of a current
               | eBike with a 100 mile range all of a sudden you don't
               | have to supersize everything on the bike and make it
               | heavy, hard to handle, and un-aerodynamic. It would make
               | the whole bike's performance improve even more.
        
           | schainks wrote:
           | Are you a parent?
        
           | kzrdude wrote:
           | 20 kg is heavy, but I've gone hiking for days with a 16 kg
           | backpack and I'm not very big. Stronger people than me carry
           | more, and those with better skills for ultralight packing
           | carry less.
           | 
           | I think that you are right, it is serious effort, but you can
           | carry 20 kg for a full day if you need to.
        
       | malchow wrote:
       | Enovix is already at 1,500 cycles w/ 88% capacity retention at
       | *889 wh/L per core* (figure ignores packaging, like the Argonne
       | figure) at 6C CCCV charge - 1C discharge.
       | 
       | And that is a commercially relevant sized cell that is being
       | produced at Fab1 in Fremont.
       | 
       | https://ir.enovix.com/static-files/667425e2-44ef-4ab0-978b-9...
        
         | Retric wrote:
         | Volumetric density isn't the issue, for many applications
         | weight per kWh is simply too high.
        
       | somewhat_drunk wrote:
       | This transition can't happen soon enough, imo.
        
       | mdkdog wrote:
       | I'm not holding my breath. I've seen too many "breakthrough's" in
       | the lasts 10 years but nothing in the market
        
         | dividuum wrote:
         | Can't wait for that Tesa battery ;-)
        
         | dd36 wrote:
         | Yep, nothing has happened in the market for the last ten
         | years...
        
         | mrb wrote:
         | In the last 10 years, the EV market has grown 50-fold from $10
         | to $500 billion in revenue.
        
       | multiplegeorges wrote:
       | Since this is being developed at a National Lab, do the findings
       | automatically enter the public domain for commercialization, or
       | can the government license the tech and reap the rewards for
       | citizens?
        
         | nvrspyx wrote:
         | IANAL, but it appears the default is the former.
         | 
         | > Licenses to practice inventions covered by patents and
         | pending patent applications owned by the U.S. Government as
         | represented by this Department will generally be royalty free,
         | revocable and nonexclusive. They will normally be issued to all
         | applicants and will generally contain no limitations or
         | standards relating to the quality or testing of the products to
         | be manufactured, sold, or distributed thereunder.
         | 
         | But...
         | 
         | > Where it appears however that the public interest will be
         | served under the circumstances of the particular case by
         | licenses which impose conditions, such as those relating to
         | quality or testing of products, requirement of payment of
         | royalties to the Government, etc., or by the issuance of
         | limited exclusive licenses by the Secretary after notice and
         | opportunity for hearing thereon, such licenses may be issued.
         | 
         | In other words, if it would be in the public interest to impose
         | royalties, exclusivity, or conditions of use, the Government
         | can do so. In this case since it's a high energy density
         | battery, I suppose an argument could easily be made that it
         | would be in the public interest for the government to impose
         | conditions related to quality and testing.
         | 
         | Source:
         | https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-34/subtitle-A/part-6/sect...
         | 
         | ---
         | 
         | EDIT: With all of that said, it appears that patents related to
         | this project, such as [1], have UChicago Argonne LLC as the
         | applicant and not a US government agency, so the above might
         | not even be applicable in this case. But, again, IANAL.
         | 
         | 1: https://image-ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-
         | public/print/downloa...
        
           | londons_explore wrote:
           | Those kind of rules infuriate me... Some politicians friend
           | will manage to argue that it's in the public interest to
           | grant an exclusive license in return for commercializing the
           | tech. They would argue that without being granted
           | exclusivity, nobody will commercialize it. Then one company
           | gets to reap all the profits of government work.
        
         | smeeth wrote:
         | National Labs usually patent tech like this. Sometimes they
         | open-source, usually at the discretion of the researcher and
         | funding entity. If patented, they either:
         | 
         | 1. Commercially license to one or more corporate entities
         | 
         | 2. Spin up a start up and license it themselves
        
         | qqqqqqqqqqqq111 wrote:
         | This is hazily remembering a presentation when I worked at ANL
         | 5 years ago, but commercializable products are owned 1/3 by the
         | govt 1/3 by ANL and 1/3 by the team that worked on it.
         | 
         | So I'd guess they will patent this and that's who will get the
         | money when they do something commercial (make or license).
        
       | wg0 wrote:
       | VR, Self driving cars, Quantum computers, fusion and efficient,
       | durable, high density batteries - always a decade away.
        
       | throw93 wrote:
       | This is awesome. I hope people realize this came out of public
       | funding and not made by a corp. Although eventually some corp
       | will make a minor tweak to this and copyright the hell out of it.
       | Really excited to see this in a car soon!
        
         | Moissanite wrote:
         | > Although eventually some corp will make a minor tweak to this
         | and copyright the hell out of it
         | 
         | Patent rather than copyright, but you are most likely correct -
         | in fact I fully expect at least one company already has a
         | patent which might arguably be infringed by this work,
         | regardless of whether that company has ever made an actual
         | working battery, or really done any meaningful research
         | whatsoever. Such is the insanity of the patent system.
        
       | causi wrote:
       | Anytime you see a "battery breakthrough" article, a way to save
       | yourself some time is just to check if they've patented it. If
       | they haven't, they have zero expectation that it has commercial
       | potential.
        
         | jillesvangurp wrote:
         | https://patents.justia.com/inventor/michael-m-thackeray
         | 
         | It seems there are a few ...
         | 
         | In related news, Michael Thackeray also now is a fellow of the
         | Royal Society: https://www.anl.gov/article/michael-thackeray-
         | named-fellow-o...
        
         | anigbrowl wrote:
         | Does the federal government hold patents? This is from a DoE
         | national laboratory, not a university.
        
           | causi wrote:
           | Yes they do. Generally they license them for free, though.
        
           | zamnos wrote:
           | They do, and in fact, the federal government even has a
           | special exception for patents. They (think: the NSA) can file
           | a patent, and if the public files a similar enough patent,
           | then the older, government one is revealed.
        
       | mabbo wrote:
       | There are so many different metrics that are important in a
       | battery. wh/kg is a key one, definitely, but the standard Lithium
       | Ion battery meets a bunch of important ones.
       | 
       | What's the wh/volume? Maybe it's light but it's huge?
       | 
       | What's the charging rate? Maybe it holds power well, but takes 3
       | days to recharge?
       | 
       | What's the discharge rate? Maybe it hold power well, but can't
       | release it quickly?
       | 
       | What's the cost per wh to produce? It's a research thing right
       | now, so probably it's incredibly expensive- but that always is
       | the case with new stuff.
       | 
       | This is the hard part with any new battery announcement. They
       | always yell about how this new battery tech wins at one metric,
       | while quietly not mentioning that there's a lot more where the
       | Li-ion wins out overall.
        
         | scythe wrote:
         | I have access to the paper. First, the actual measured capacity
         | is 685 Wh/kg, not 1200; the researchers stated they hope to
         | reach the latter figure with further development. In order:
         | 
         | - Wh/L is 619, so the battery just barely floats. The absence
         | of a dense metal oxide cathode probably makes it lighter than
         | the usual lithium battery cell (which have s.g. ~2).
         | 
         | - Charging rate is given as 1 A/g for a 1 Ah/g electrode, so
         | these numbers were measured with a 1-hour charge time. Data for
         | higher charge rates is buried in the Supporting Information
         | (which may be public?)
         | 
         | - Discharge rate is the same.
         | 
         | - Cost to produce is unclear. The electrolyte contains about
         | 1-2% germanium (5 wt% of Li10GeP2S2), and the cathode contains
         | molybdenum. It is difficult to give the Mo concentration with
         | certainty because the specific area of the cathode is given as
         | "250 g/m^2" but it should be as "m^2/g". Assuming a simple
         | typo, the cathode contains 25 mg of Mo per cubic centimeter,
         | which is sometimes written "2.5% w/v". These are rare elements,
         | but the concentrations are rather low. The use of toxic
         | sulfides (H2S risk) may increase production costs.
         | 
         | Coulombic efficiency, which you didn't ask for, starts at 93%
         | and drops to 88% after 1000 cycles, so pretty good but a little
         | lower than you expect from a typical lithium battery.
        
           | amluto wrote:
           | Wh/kg is an insufficient metric for air batteries. One needs
           | Wh/kg at full charge and separately or full discharge, or
           | kg/Wh charged and additional kg/Wh per unit Wh discharged, or
           | something along those lines.
           | 
           | (kg/Ah discharged could be used to estimate electrons per
           | oxygen atom absorbed, too.)
        
           | keanebean86 wrote:
           | > 1 A/g for a 1 Ah/g
           | 
           | How does that compare to other batteries?
        
       | MisterPea wrote:
       | Wait what?? What's the catch, 1200wh/kg is insane.
       | 
       | Putting the same weight of this into a Tesla Model Y would easily
       | give over 1200 miles of range
        
         | nagisa wrote:
         | Volumetric density matters too.
        
           | ajross wrote:
           | For consumer electronics, absolutely. Not so much for cars. A
           | Tesla battery pack is a big sheet just 3" thick. You could
           | double that easily without significant effect on the layout
           | or design of the body.
        
           | Mountain_Skies wrote:
           | Very long cars are going to make a comeback. Parking lots
           | will never be the same again! Wonder how well the batteries
           | tolerate deformation and if they could be molded into crumble
           | zones.
        
             | lm28469 wrote:
             | > Very long cars are going to make a comeback.
             | 
             | Not in Europe, a lot of US cars already wouldn't fit in EU
             | parking spots (most are 5mx2.3m)
        
               | Mountain_Skies wrote:
               | Parking spaces in US cities can get smaller the closer
               | you get to the central business district. Eventually
               | they're marked as 'Compact' so hopefully only those in
               | compact cars will attempt to use them. If Lithium-Air
               | batteries enabled widespread adoption of EVs over ICE
               | vehicles, but at the cost of requiring longer vehicles,
               | would enlarging parking spaces be an acceptable cost?
        
               | pmontra wrote:
               | They might park over the lines of outdoor parking slots
               | but they won't fit into single car garages.
        
               | sebnukem2 wrote:
               | People driving oversized cars from US in EU have no
               | qualms about taking 2 parking spots.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | BaseballPhysics wrote:
         | Probably the same catch as any major battery news: going from
         | lab to actual real-life production is a long journey, and it's
         | as yet unclear if the manufacture can be scaled up and if it
         | can work in real-life applications.
        
         | blake1 wrote:
         | The stats are not crazy for an air battery.
         | 
         | But the catch is two-fold. First, are they weighing the battery
         | before or after discharging? Oxidizing will change the weight
         | significantly. The most honest result would be the average
         | weight during the cycle.
         | 
         | The other catch with these air batteries is usually the purity
         | requirements on the intake. I recall reading about earlier
         | experiments that could not tolerate pollen, dust, and smog, and
         | required an energy intensive purification step (maybe involving
         | cryogenics) that was a nontrivial power draw.
         | 
         | Those caveats aside, a back of the envelope estimate for the
         | energy density would be something like 600-700 Wh/kg.
        
           | _hypx wrote:
           | The other issue is that metal-air batteries go by another
           | name: fuel cells. You are power-gated by how much oxygen you
           | can deliver to the battery. As a result, metal-air
           | batteries/fuel cells are either very slow to discharge, or
           | have big air pumps to have decent performance.
           | 
           | And of course, they will release oxygen if you try to charge
           | them, which implies a way of rapidly expelling air when
           | charging up quickly. Many past attempts avoid this problem by
           | "mechanically" charge up the battery, meaning literally
           | swapping out the spent chemicals with new ones. This of
           | course require an auxiliary battery if you want regenerative
           | braking or the ability to electrically charge.
           | 
           | And of course, the real catch is that we've already invented
           | the metal-air battery in a practical way: hydrogen fuel
           | cells. The big advantage with them is that mechanically
           | recharging is very straightforward compared to other
           | mechanisms. All other attempts are basically reinventing the
           | wheel or have a very specific niche in mind.
        
           | MuffinFlavored wrote:
           | > a back of the envelope estimate for the energy density
           | would be something like 600-700 Wh/kg.
           | 
           | https://www.google.com/search?q=current+tesla+battery+energy.
           | .. says Tesla batteries are currently in the range of
           | 270-290Wh/kg
           | 
           | Is that accurate to you?
           | 
           | As in this is roughly at least twice as good as current
           | technology? Seems too good to be true. When can we expect to
           | see it hit consumer cars? 5 years? 10 years?
        
             | aquarium87 wrote:
             | Except tesla is expecting and has been achieving 10%
             | density increases in the last few years. Do this for 8
             | years, and you get double, same as the new battery tech
             | that's gonna take 10 years.
             | 
             | 1st gen: 276 Wh/kg (2022)
             | 
             | 2nd gen: 305 Wh/kg (2023)
             | 
             | 3rd gen: 333 Wh/kg (2024)[1]
             | 
             | Here is a cool article on all the tech that is scheduled or
             | went into these new 4680 batteries and getting the energy
             | density up well past 300.
             | 
             | https://cleantechnica.com/2020/09/22/everything-you-need-
             | to-...
             | 
             | [1]https://insideevs.com/news/598656/tesla-4680-battery-
             | cell-sp...
        
               | redox99 wrote:
               | Your info is out of date. The 4680 actually ended up
               | being 244Wh/kg[1], which is lower than the Panasonic 2170
               | at 269 Wh/kg that they were already using.
               | 
               | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XOHetABrag
        
         | Escapado wrote:
         | The catch is that this is a tiny lab prototype, where the
         | energy density is projected and I could not find it in the
         | paper that the cycling was in fact tested for 1000 times and
         | even though the starting materials are cheap the article is
         | very light on details about mass manufacturing larger cells. I
         | don't want to take away from the research and think it's super
         | cool and hope it scales well to mass production but it's
         | usually a long road from lab prototype to Tesla level
         | production facilities.
        
           | mhb wrote:
           | > I could not find it in the paper that the cycling was in
           | fact tested for 1000 times
           | 
           |  _The team established that this shortcoming is not the case
           | for their new battery design by building and operating a test
           | cell for 1000 cycles, demonstrating its stability over
           | repeated charge and discharge._
        
           | cosmotic wrote:
           | > long road
           | 
           | But how long? Longer than 300 miles?
        
             | jackmott42 wrote:
             | Almost all inventions you hear about in the lab phase like
             | this NEVER make it to production.
             | 
             | But sometimes they do.
        
               | boringg wrote:
               | Argonne got NMC to market. I wouldn't discount Argonne.
        
               | rhodin wrote:
               | If interested in battery technology and Argonne I'd
               | recommend this book: "The Powerhouse: America, China, and
               | the Great Battery War" [0]
               | 
               | [0] https://www.amazon.com/Powerhouse-America-China-
               | Great-Batter...
        
               | moreati wrote:
               | For anyone else curious, NMC is probably https://en.wikip
               | edia.org/wiki/Lithium_nickel_manganese_cobal...
               | 
               | > Lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides (abbreviated Li-
               | NMC, LNMC, or NMC) are mixed metal oxides of lithium,
               | nickel, manganese and cobalt. They have the general
               | formula LiNixMnyCozO2. ... NMCs are among the most
               | important storage materials for lithium ions in lithium
               | ion batteries. They are used on the positive side, which
               | acts as the cathode during discharge.
        
               | isk517 wrote:
               | To quote Terry Pratchett:
               | 
               | 99 out of every 100 ideas they come up with are complete
               | rubbish, but the 100th tends to be an absolute humdinger.
        
               | swayvil wrote:
               | Take a commonly held opinion. Something that all the
               | smart people hold to be true.
               | 
               | Frame it wisely and wittily enough for fast food. Feed it
               | back to those smart people.
               | 
               | That's Terry.
        
               | nindalf wrote:
               | Take someone who's achieved something. Someone widely
               | admired.
               | 
               | Shit on them. Imply there was nothing impressive about
               | what they did and it wasn't worth doing.
               | 
               | That's HN.
        
               | mdp2021 wrote:
               | > _That 's HN_
               | 
               | As opposed to the miracle of selection elsewhere. /S
        
               | perlgeek wrote:
               | Most of these inventions don't live up to their initial
               | hype, but some do find a niche (for example cell
               | chemistry optimized for large temperature ranges,
               | optimized for certain safety features, longevity over
               | charge density etc.), and ideas from some of them find
               | their way into mainstream batteries after a decade or
               | two.
               | 
               | It basically never happens that a new cell chemistry
               | becomes the market leader in all areas, but all in all,
               | batteries to get better and cheaper at a remarkable rate.
        
             | gswdh wrote:
             | [dead]
        
         | dotancohen wrote:
         | 1000 cycles is about three years of use. I personally charge my
         | EV every night, it's better to form a habit of plugging it in
         | every night than to forget to check it and not have enough
         | energy in the morning.
        
           | jve wrote:
           | Discharging/Charging 10% 10 times is 1 cycle.
           | https://www.apple.com/batteries/why-lithium-ion/
        
             | woobar wrote:
             | Just checked a relatively new iPhone that is 132 days old.
             | I charge it nightly, even though it hardly goes below 50%.
             | In fact, battery stats for last 10 says that it used on
             | average 40% battery per day, and it is pretty typical usage
             | for me. It has 111 charging cycles.
             | 
             | Something doesn't add up.
        
           | jackmott42 wrote:
           | no, 1000 cycles doesn't mean 1000 charging events will end
           | it. 1000 cycles from 100 to 0% will end it, and if its like
           | current batteries, you get more than say, 10X as many cycles
           | when you only use 10% of the battery per cycle
        
             | andruby wrote:
             | In addition to what you said, after the rated cycles most
             | Lithium batteries still work and can still hold 70~80% of
             | their original capacity.
        
             | sandworm101 wrote:
             | Once charging/discharge times come down, trickery can be
             | used to turn 1000 into 10,000 cycles easily. If you can
             | charge fast, you can isolate cells alto charge/discharge
             | them individually, only jumping to other cells once the
             | first is full. Essentially, it's wear leveling of batteries
             | as done with flash memory. At the moment individual cells
             | cannot charge/discharge fast enough to fully enable this.
        
         | winter_blue wrote:
         | The Model Y battery is 771 kg. At 1200 Wh/kg, we're looking at
         | 925 kWh. That's 12 times the current battery (76 kWh). So range
         | would be ~500 km x 12 = 6,000 km.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | jackmott42 wrote:
         | parameters that are important:
         | 
         | 1. how fast can you charge it
         | 
         | 2. how much power can it output?
         | 
         | 3. how long does it last time wise, not just cycle wise
         | 
         | 4. how much does it cost
         | 
         | 5. how much space does it take up
         | 
         | 6. what temperature ranges can it handle?
         | 
         | 7. can it handle vibrations
         | 
         | just a few
        
           | boringg wrote:
           | doest is suffer from thermal runaway etc.
           | 
           | All these parameters do is help determine its best possible
           | use-case for product and if it something to compete against
           | incumbents or open up other market possibilities.
        
             | kibwen wrote:
             | _> thermal runaway etc_
             | 
             | From the article: _" The main new component in this
             | lithium-air battery is a solid electrolyte instead of the
             | usual liquid variety. Batteries with solid electrolytes are
             | not subject to the safety issue with the liquid
             | electrolytes used in lithium-ion and other battery types,
             | which can overheat and catch fire."_
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | credit_guy wrote:
         | Maybe one catch is that the weight of the discharged battery is
         | much higher than the weight of the fully charged one. So, as
         | you travel, the battery becomes heavier and heavier
         | 
         | > This new solid enables chemical reactions that produce
         | lithium oxide (Li2O) on discharge.
         | 
         | Lithium has an atomic mass of 7 and Oxygen of 16. The reaction
         | starts with only Lithium (2 atoms = 14 mass) and ends with
         | Li2O, with a mass of 30.
        
           | jackmott42 wrote:
           | you could start out 4 times lighter than a modern battery
           | pack and end up only 2 times lighter when discharged..
           | 
           | that would be fine!
        
           | frankus wrote:
           | This could make things interesting for aircraft, where
           | currently they get considerably lighter as they reach the end
           | of their flight.
        
           | tinus_hn wrote:
           | > Maybe one catch is that the weight of the discharged
           | battery is much higher than the weight of the fully charged
           | one.
           | 
           | That would add an interesting dynamic during a race!
        
           | Robotbeat wrote:
           | Most of the weight of the battery isn't lithium, so the
           | effect isn't as bad as you might think.
        
         | joezydeco wrote:
         | 1200 miles, but takes 3 days to fully charge.
        
           | thangalin wrote:
           | Let's go metric with 2000 km. The 2021 Kona EV has a range of
           | about 500 km. The level 2 charger at my house takes 9 hours
           | to recharge from empty (i.e., overnight). That's 1.5 days to
           | fully charge a battery offering a 2000 km range, in theory,
           | which is half your estimate. A DC fast charger can recharge
           | 400 km in 50 minutes (80% capacity), equivalent to 4 hours
           | for 2000 km. Meaning those batteries will probably take
           | closer to 5 hours to fully recharge when using the fastest
           | chargers available today.
        
             | joezydeco wrote:
             | The article makes no mention of charging time, which would
             | lead me to believe it's barely identical and most likely
             | worse than current rates.
        
       | mdp2021 wrote:
       | A Jackery Explorer model 240 weighs 3Kg, a model 500 6Kg, a model
       | 1000 10Kg.
       | 
       | This promises a jump of an order of magnitude (base 10)...
        
       | dvh wrote:
       | 18650 battery weighting 45 grams would have 54Wh while typical
       | 18650 now have around 10Wh
        
         | Tuna-Fish wrote:
         | These are lithium-air batteries, meaning you cannot construct
         | them into normal, cylindrical batteries as they need air intake
         | (and exhaust when charging).
        
       | timerol wrote:
       | > "The chemical reaction for lithium superoxide or peroxide only
       | involves one or two electrons stored per oxygen molecule, whereas
       | that for lithium oxide involves four electrons," said Argonne
       | chemist Rachid Amine. More electrons stored means higher energy
       | density.
       | 
       | I find it odd and surprising that the limiting factor is
       | electrons per oxygen, not electrons per lithium. Oxygen is freely
       | floating in the air, while lithium is in a fixed amount in the
       | battery. Possibly something about the electrode makes it store a
       | limited quantity of oxygen.
        
         | jacknews wrote:
         | Most of the energy from burning fuel comes from the oxygen, not
         | the fuel:
         | 
         | https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00333
        
         | melony wrote:
         | Nominative determinism strikes again!
        
       | jmartrican wrote:
       | About time Argonne starts pulling it weight. Its been Livermore
       | National Laboratory showing up in my news feeds.
       | 
       | Any downsides to this air battery that wasn't mentioned in the
       | article?
        
         | Iv wrote:
         | "With further development, we expect"
         | 
         | These are the downsides. These are promises. Not actual
         | performances.
        
         | sebnukem2 wrote:
         | From the article, now, this air battery is only vapor.
        
         | throitallaway wrote:
         | I glanced over the headline and though it was an Argon Lithium
         | battery tech.
        
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       (page generated 2023-02-23 23:00 UTC)