Documentary HD 2017: Look for the Super Battery
The electric car the greatest threat may be its battery.
Visit a super-rich enclave in California like La Jolla or super-techy like Mountain View, and you have a glimpse of the future The future of the car, which is every second car on the road is a Tesla, Nissan Leaf Toyota Prius or similar electric and hybrid vehicles intertwine perfectly with regular traffic, and many businesses, malls and homes have installed charge points.
If electric car manufacturers have their way, this is the future that we all experience at some point, and they waste a lot of money bring about the question is how easy is it to scale the requirements of small enclaves in the whole country.
Elsewhere in California Elon Musk of Tesla Motors recently proposed plan for a huge battery plant at a yet undisclosed location in the south western United States that is the subject of many discussions feverish What should we call Gigafactory cost 5 billion and expected to produce lithium-ion batteries for 500,000 cars by 2020, which is produced annually in the world were produced in 2013.
But the plan seems to date when the plant starts Some think the Phil Gott, director of senior planning at IHS Automotive, believes ambitious plan Tesla is probably premature Tesla New technologies are being developed that could offer better solutions to what experts say is one of the main limiting factors for electric vehicles.
The problem with these cars face is that batteries are big and heavy, and therefore only a limited number can be installed the Tesla Model S, for example, has a battery of about two meters long by 1 to 2 meters wide , which is installed in the flat floor of the car in the top-spec car, which gives a range of about 300 miles 482 km before plugging in and charging needs the Nissan Leaf performs more like 80 miles 128 km more this, the load is a much slower process than just refueling.
How you can make a better battery, then to his most basic battery contains a positive and negative electrode, separator and electrolyte Many types of materials can be used as electrodes, different material combinations for different amounts of energy to be stored but the battery life and the security features change as the materials change, a compromise is always necessary lithium-ion batteries are very popular, but were involved in fires on planes, and All transportation is limited more reactive or unstable could be a danger Getting the right combination, however, and the gain could be huge.
The latest efforts follow a long line of improvements over the decades we have had first lead acid batteries, the type that is still commonly used in cars; they are huge Then you might remember batteries nickel cadmium NiCad they were the harbingers rechargeable batteries of a new era of laptops mobile technology, phones, etc., as well as remote control cars from our childhoods then came the nickel metal hydride NiMH batteries, with about twice the capacity or energy density now, modern appliances and electric cars are powered by lithium-ion or Li-ion batteries.
In the future, get ready for battery technology have names more and more complex; LiNiMnCo lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides such These materials have complex properties, and work is now underway to understand not only why these materials work, but exactly how they work - the basic physics of moving electrons around materials .
There are materials that we work at Argonne which can double the current energy density available for batteries, said Daniel Abraham, a scientific equipment at Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago in the United United We dream or imagine the types of materials that we would like to work with, we try to synthesize laboratory materials.
Currently, the batteries get all the buzz are lithium-air, or more lithium-oxygen and lithium-sulfur batteries Li-oxygen batteries, if they can be made to work in all conditions, will be an order of improving the magnitude of current lithium-ion batteries it is a very hot area at that time Abraham said.
Indeed Volkswagen has recently suggested that survey of lithium-air batteries The precise combination of chemicals they use has not been revealed as development work continues, the company's engineers do not even tell if the technology has been tested in a car, or if it is still at the laboratory bench stadium.
But although the technology has a revolutionary potential, the technical challenges of making a Li-air battery working regularly, reliably and safely and crucial for prolonged periods are large far the electrodes have proven unstable .
Labs around the world are working on the problem if, trying to overcome the drawbacks The hope is that more emphasis on these beyond lithium-ion technology, ensure faster progress in their development, and in cars long-term faster traveling further.
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