Mom Confessions

Scientists build battery that can charge in seconds

Breakthrough battery can be used in everything from electric cars to smartphones

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/batt ... 33135.html


The biggest hurdle we have faced to cheap, clean, sustainable energy is the difficulty of energy storage. Existing batteries are inefficient, take a long time to charge and are made of rare minerals that are hard to source and hard to recycle.

The new batteries are made from sodium. Cheap, plentiful, endlessly renewable sodium may soon make it possible to charge your phone, your car etc in seconds. Batteries of this kind would allow us to store the energy from solar and wind to use when it's dark and still. These batteries could be made from the waste sodium from desalinization, solving two problems at once, and they already have a process for mass-producing them.

Cheaper, safer, greater charge, and more efficient batteries will improve everything. The world just became a better place.

Really need to know how these preform in extreme cold temperatures. Existing electric cars are almost worthless in northern Canada.

highlandmum wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 3:37 pm Really need to know how these preform in extreme cold temperatures. Existing electric cars are almost worthless in northern Canada.

Good question, but if the rest of the world was running electric, northern Canada, Siberia etc could keep their combustion engines and it wouldn't be a problem.

SallyMae wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 3:49 pm

highlandmum wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 3:37 pm Really need to know how these preform in extreme cold temperatures. Existing electric cars are almost worthless in northern Canada.

Good question, but if the rest of the world was running electric, northern Canada, Siberia etc could keep their combustion engines and it wouldn't be a problem.

Not Canada's take on it. They want all cars sold to be 0 emissions by 2035. With the current infrastructure that is completely impossible. The world is not ready for 100% electrical, we do not have the capabilities. Plus currently with the cost of these batteries there is no real second hand car market, leaving the cost of cars out of reach for many people. This is yet another issue that needs to be solved prior to switching over to 0 emissions.

I think the world is going to change very very quickly in the next decade or two.

Good news, here are some reasons why sodium batteries might perform a lot better a low temperatures than lithium-ion batteries:

• Weaker Ion-Solvent Interaction: Sodium-ion batteries use electrolytes with a weaker bond between the ions and the solvent compared to lithium-ion batteries. This weaker bond allows sodium ions to move more freely even at low temperatures, resulting in better performance.

• SEI Film Formation: The weaker interaction also helps form a more conductive layer called the Solid Electrolyte Interphase (SEI) on the electrode surface. This layer is crucial for ion transport, and a more conductive SEI at low temperatures translates to better battery function.

So, maybe. But we cannot even imagine the technology which will be available by 2035, so I have a lot of hope that we can figure it out. Now, if we can just avoid civilizational collapse.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 9724001958

https://www.kaist.ac.kr/site/newsen/htm ... g_no=36310