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Enhancing battery performance for portable electronics

Date:
November 19, 2013
Source:
American Institute of Physics
Summary:
The ever-increasing market for portable electronic devices has resulted in an equally heavy demand for rechargeable batteries, lithium-ion (Li-ion) being among the most popular. Scientists and engineers are seeking ways to improve the power density, durability and overall performance of Lithium-ion batteries, and in a recent paper researchers report an advance in Li-ion battery technology that they describe as a major breakthrough.
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The ever-increasing market for portable electronic devices such as laptops, cell phones and MP3 players has resulted in an equally heavy demand for secondary batteries -- more commonly known as rechargeable batteries -- Lithium-ion (Li-ion) being among the most popular.

Scientists and engineers worldwide are seeking ways to improve the power density, durability and overall performance of Lithium-ion batteries, and in a recent paper in the AIP Publishing journal APL Materials, Japanese researchers from a public-private team report an advance in Li-ion battery technology that they describe as a major breakthrough. They fabricated a cathode (positive electrode) of lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) in which the compound's individual grains are aligned in a specific orientation. The researchers claim that this yields a significantly higher-performing battery than one with a randomly-oriented LiCoO2 cathode.

Primary, or non-rechargeable, batteries and secondary batteries both produce current through an electrochemical reaction involving a cathode, an anode, and an electrolyte (an ion-conducting material). However, apply an outside current to a secondary battery and the negative-to-positive electron flow that occurs during discharge is reversed. This allows the battery to restore lost charge.

"In a lithium-ion battery, lithium ions move from the anode to the cathode during discharge and back when charging," said Tohru Suzuki, a co-author on the APL Materials paper. "The material in the cathode has a layered structure to facilitate intercalation [insertion] of the lithium ions; if the structure is oriented in a specific fashion, the lithium ions have better access to the lattice and, in turn, charge-discharge performance is improved."

Using a rotating magnetic field, the researchers were able to fabricate the ideal textured microstructure of the individual LiCoO2 grains making up the cathode: a perpendicular alignment of the c-plane (the vertical side) and a random orientation of the c-axis. Unlike cathodes where the microstructures in both the c-plane and c-axis are randomly oriented, the specialized grains allow easy access for lithium ions while relaxing the stress associated with intercalation.

"This yields a highly efficient flow of electrons in both directions," Suzuki said.


Story Source:

Materials provided by American Institute of Physics. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Hideto Yamada, Tohru S. Suzuki, Tetsuo Uchikoshi, Masato Hozumi, Toshiya Saito, Yoshio Sakka. Ideal design of textured LiCoO2 sintered electrode for Li-ion secondary battery. APL Materials, 2013; 1 (4): 042110 DOI: 10.1063/1.4824042

Cite This Page:

American Institute of Physics. "Enhancing battery performance for portable electronics." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 November 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131119153029.htm>.
American Institute of Physics. (2013, November 19). Enhancing battery performance for portable electronics. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 18, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131119153029.htm
American Institute of Physics. "Enhancing battery performance for portable electronics." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131119153029.htm (accessed March 18, 2024).

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