A team of researchers at Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has invented a coating to extend battery life.
The researchers also dealt with the combustion issue by greatly limiting the tiny, needle-like structures, or dendrites, which pierce the separator between the battery’s positive and negative sides.
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In addition to ruining the battery, dendrites can create a short circuit within the battery’s flammable liquid.
Lithium-ion batteries occasionally have the same problem, but dendrites have been a non-starter for lithium metal rechargeable batteries to date.
“We’re addressing the holy grail of lithium metal batteries,” said Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering, who is senior author of a paper along with Yi Cui, professor of materials science and engineering and photon science.
Bao added dendrites had prevented lithium metal batteries from being used in what may be the next generation of electric vehicles.
Lithium metal batteries can hold at least a third more power per pound as lithium-ion batteries do and are significantly lighter because they use lightweight lithium for the positively charged end rather than heavier graphite.
