How do batteries work northwestern

Fulltext search. Centers Contact us Donate. New battery uses oxygen, in addition to iron, to store and release electrical energy. Feb Campus News. Battery leverages both iron and oxygen to drive more lithium ions Article originally published in Northwestern Engineering News. But not only does the battery work, it does so incredibly well. Share This. Register for Updates Join over 5, people who receive the latest sustainability and energy news each month. Leave this field blank.

Related Articles. Campus News From Tesla to Nissan, manufacturers today offer more all-electric, completely battery-powered models than ever. These cars certainly make great sense environmentally. With zero tailpipe emissions, these cars could put a major dent into the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, reduce fossil fuel reliance, and help slow climate change. That could change fast. The implications of their work extend far beyond automobiles, of course, to include virtually all battery-dependent devices and gadgets.

Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering. But right now, the renewable generation of electricity is still more expensive than conventional methods. We have to develop a source of electricity that poses no drawbacks. In an all-electric car, the battery comes in as the single most expensive component. Such a significant price tag catapults electric cars to a higher price point than most consumers can afford.

The fear is not unfounded as such stations are still few and far between. A typical electric car can only travel a couple hundred miles before reaching the end of its charge, when it must be plugged in to recharge for several hours. That range is much shorter than the to miles that a conventionally powered car can cover on one tank of gas. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. Ever since Sony released it in , the lithium-ion battery has set the gold standard for battery technology.

Compared to earlier ancestors, the lithium-ion model is the lowest density battery with the greatest energy-to-weight ratio. This popular iteration has three components: the anode, the cathode, and the electrolyte. The anode, typically made of graphite, holds the negative charge. The cathode, a combination of lithium, a conductive metal, and an oxide, holds the positive charge.

The electrolyte, held within a solid polymer composite, serves simply as a transport medium for the lithium ions to move between the anode and cathode. When a battery is in use, lithium ions travel from the anode to the cathode.

When the battery is charged, the ions move back to the anode, where they are stored. Coming up with the best materials, tools, and designs for building better batteries requires exhaustive research involving materials science and chemical engineering. One of the consistent quests is to make a battery that can store more energy in the anode. Researchers discovered that anodes made with silicon rather than the traditional graphite can hold more lithium, but silicon expands and contracts during the charging and discharging process.

These size fluctuations can cause the anode to crack and ultimately the battery to fail. Professor Kung solved this problem by sandwiching silicon between graphene sheets, capturing all the benefits of silicon, along with padding to accommodate volume changes during use. It could one day be used in smartphones and electric vehicles, thereby boosting their capabilities.

He and his team also intend to test other compounds and materials to see if their methods will continue to work. If so, we could see an even wider range of cheaper, more efficient batteries. Fulltext search. Centers Contact us Donate. Jan Community Press.