Li-ion batteries: news, progress, history and background

One of the means that electrically powered vehicles used to maximize their range is regenerative braking where the kinetic energy of the vehicle is recaptured during deceleration and than released during acceleration. The problem is that most batteries can't absorb energy quickly enough to capture all the available energy. This is where capacitors have an advantage since they can absorb energy a lot faster than batteries and do it a lot more times. Unfortunately the total energy capacity is limited, which also limits their usefulness. While a lithium ion battery pack could contain enough energy to drive a vehicle a couple of hundred miles, an ultra-capacitor pack would be lucky to get a few miles.   Original post

New Pillared Graphene Material Offers Enhanced Hydrogen Storage; Close to DOE Target 1 October 2008 Volumetric hydrogen uptake for graphene (diamonds), (6,6) carbon nanotubes (squares), pillared material (triangles), and Li-doped pillared (stars) at (a) 77 K and (b) 300 K. Click to enlarge. Credit: ACS Researchers at the University of Crete (Greece) have designed a novel 3-D network nanostructure that almost meets the US Department of Energy (DOE) 2010 volumetric goals for hydrogen storage. The new pillared graphene material could theoretically store up to 41 grams of hydrogen per liter under ambient conditions; the DOE’s target is 45 g/L. Their study is scheduled for the 8 October issue of the ACS journal Nano Letters . Georgios K. Dimitrakakis, Emmanuel Tylianakis, and George E. Froudakis designed a unique structure consisting of parallel graphene sheets—layers of carbon just one atom thick—stabilized by vertical columns of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The nanoporous material has by desi...

London, January 3 (ANI): It seems that the dream of environmentally friendly aviation is very close to reality, with a French test pilot successfully flying an aircraft propelled by an electric motor. The Electra is a single-seater plane, made up of wood and fabric. Having flown for 48 minutes for 50km around the southern Alps, it has proved that applying battery power to a fixed-wing standard aircraft is possible. The APAME group, founded to develop green aviation, announced this groundbreaking flight. This will be a real aeroplane that will have an airworthiness certificate. It is a machine built for anyone with a pilots licence, Times Online quoted Anne Lavrand, president of APAME, as saying. She also revealed that her team, financed by French aerospace companies and other donors, started working on this project quietly 18 months ago. When we began, no one believed we could do it, she said. Lavrand further revealed that her group used a Souricette kit aircraft, and adapted to it a 2...

It was September 20, 1995 when Apple recalled their new PowerBook 5300 for the first time. The PowerBook 5300 was a big product for Apple. The company had entered into a cross-promotional deal with the producers of Mission Impossible wherein the computer appeared (with a command line interface) throughout the blockbuster movie. Apple was also charging a phenomenal price for the machine, a whopping $6,500 for the 5300ce partly because it was Apple’s first PowerPC-based laptop. The good times didn’t last long. Less than a month after it was introduced, the machine was recalled when preproduction units caught on fire. The problem was blamed on batteries manufactured by Sony, but Apple recalled all the computers sold to that point (claiming that was less than 100 units). The 5300 went on to be recalled again for case problems, but the first recall (and the impetus for a lot of jokes) came this week in 1995 less than a month after the PowerBook 5300 had been released. Source

Yet another "hybrid" type or some kind of battery/capacitor energy storage concept... Battery-like device could power electric cars - CNN.com : "AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Millions of inventions pass quietly through the U.S. patent office each year. Patent No. 7,033,406 did, too, until energy insiders spotted six words in the filing that sounded like a death knell for the internal combustion engine. An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised 'technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries,' meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip between Dallas and Houston without gasoline. By contrast, some plug-in hybrids on the horizon would require motorists to charge their cars in a wall outlet overnight and promise only 50 miles of gasoline-free commute. And the popular hybrids on the road today still depend heavily on fossil fuels. 'It's a paradigm shift,' said Ian Clifford, chief executive of Toronto-base...

Press release, August 29; Eric Mah, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 29 August 2007] Greater China is one of the largest manufacturing centers for lithium batteries, with China accounting for 16.9% and Taiwan for 5.6% of worldwide production, according to market research firm Research and Markets (RM). Greater China makers produce primary (non-rechargeable) and secondary (rechargeable) lithium batteries, noted RM, adding that some of the lithium battery makers in the region produce lithium battery cells – the basic component of a battery or battery pack. These makers are large-scale companies that also supply battery cells to other lithium battery manufacturers, added the firm. Production of rechargeable lithium batteries in China is expected to rise by 11% from 950 million units in 2006 to 1 billion units in 2007, according to the China Industrial Association of Power Sources (CIAPS). Most manufacturers plan to increase their production by up to 50% in the next two years and those already running...

Sony is now licensed to use 3M technology in its batteries - Jul. 30, 2007 NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- 3M Co. said Monday it has reached agreement in patent settlement with Sony Corp. over the technology in a type of battery used in laptop computers and cell phones. St. Paul, Minn.-based 3M said in a statement that Sony's Sony Electronics unit is now a licensed source of lithium ion batteries containing 3M cathode technology. Specific terms of the settlement are confidential, 3M said. Sony was not immediately available for comment. 3M said the patent dispute against Sony and other companies was filed in the U.S. District Court for Minnesota and the United States International Trade Commission in March. The company said it holds patents on cathode materials containing nickel, manganese and cobalt, which the company says are an important technology for current and next generation lithium ion batteries. Rechargeable lithium ion batteries are found in laptop computers, mobile phones an...

Here are all news about latest recall

So far, the fields of Li-ion battery application for the last years enlarge and grab increasingly more market from originally discovered - cell phone application to notebooks, digital camera, PDA etc. This is because of their high energy density (smaller size/weight – higher capacity) and the capacity of the Li-ion cells of the same size has increased by > 7% per each year. Now safety is considered one of the most important features of Li-ion cells. Nearly all electricity consumers demand a high voltage, which is realized by connecting cells in series. Since the single cells have different capacities, it is impossible to maintain the optimal charge voltage in the weakest cell at the end of the charge process. Consequently, the cell voltage increases and, besides the main charging reaction, chemical and electrochemical side reactions are possible. To avoid this problem for lithium-ion batteries consisting out of non-over-chargeable cells, computer-controlled charging systems regulat...

Tokyo -- Tales of burning notebook PCs that hit the news last summer raised serious concerns among consumers about the safety of lithium-ion batteries. Responding to those fears, Japan's battery and PC industries have jointly hammered out guidelines for the safe use of Li-ion batteries. The industries' task force has also presented its proposal to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). "We have worked hard since last October for lithium-ion battery safety. The resulting guidelines are designed to eliminate serious problems, such as catching fire," said Masami Yamamoto, corporate vice president of Fujitsu Ltd., who chaired the safety committee formed last fall by the Japan Electronics & Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) and the Battery Association of Japan. As the next step, the team intends to expand the guidelines beyond notebooks to other applications, such as cell phones. The guidelines are not intended to clarify the cause of ...

Lightning Lithium Superbike: No Emissions (TreeHugger) : "Lightning Lithium Superbike: No Emissions" However the Lightning Lithium is, after all, just a prototype — an idealistic vision of what could be. Using a track-beaten 1999 Yamaha R1, the conversion cost about $15,000 total. It was the brainchild of Richard Hatfield, a motorcycle enthusiast and solar panel importer based in Burlingame, and Todd Kollin, who's been making electric bikes out of past-their-prime gas-powered ones for the last six years at his Oakland shop, Electric Motorsport. Right now, the shop does custom conversions of aging internal-combustion bikes, with a turnaround time of about 30 days.

A story in MIT's Technology Review, written by yours truly, looks at progress in the development of solar batteries for small electronic devices. Researchers in Europe have paired together a thin-film organic (polymer) solar cell and a flexible polymer battery, with the end result being a super thin, flexible solar battery that can automatically recharge remote controls, sensors, and even mobile phones when exposed to indoor or natural light. Full story

The KillaCycle, an all-electric motorcycle, is now the fastest electric vehicle of all time. At a drag race in Chandler, Ariz., the bike completed a quarter mile in 8.168 seconds, breaking the six-year-old record of 8.801 held by Dennis Berube with an electric car for more than six years. The bike cranked it up to 155.87 miles an hour. Even more impressive, it hit this level of performance twice, on April 3 and April 4. The bike is powered by 990 lithium ion cells from A123 Systems, a Massachusetts start-up that is also making batteries for General Motors. (A123 also makes the batteries for the Atlas Powered Rope Ascender, a device invented at MIT that can scoot a person 300 feet up a rope in about a half a minute.) An earlier version of the bike only had 880 battery cells. Full story

back to 2006 again when Nanoexa and Decktron jointly announced a definitive agreement to develop and transfer into commercial use new lithium battery technology originally developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. The goal of this agreement is to commercialize next generation rechargeable lithium battery technologies from Argonne’s Battery Technology Department. Together, the organizations will introduce into the marketplace batteries with increased power output, storage capacity, safety and lifetime that will be utilized in high-rate applications such as hybrid/electric vehicles, power tools, and radio control devices. Full story

back to summer of 2006 A research team led by Carnegie Mellon University Materials Science and Biomedical Engineering Professor Prashant Kumta has discovered a nanocrystalline material that is cheaper, more stable and produces a higher quality energy storage capacity for use in a variety of industrial and portable consumer electronic products. Kumta said the discovery, published this summer in Advanced Materials Journal, has important implications for increasing the longevity of rechargeable car batteries, fuel cells and other battery-operated electronic devices. "We have found that synthesis of nanostructured vanadium nitride and controlled oxidation of the surface at the nanoscale is key to creating the next generation of supercapacitors commonly used in everything from cars, camcorders and lawn mowers to industrial backup power systems at hospitals and airports," Kumta said. Full story

Researchers at Delft University of Technology can predict how nanostructuring – the extreme reduction of structure – will affect the performance of Li-ion batteries. The nanostructuring of battery materials is likely to be common practice in the future, but it is not always performance-enhancing. The research findings have recently been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. A Li-ion battery is currently the smallest and lightest way to store as much rechargeable electrical energy as possible. However, the batteries are slow to charge and discharge, and this restricts their suitability for applications such as hybrid and electric vehicles. This sluggish performance is largely determined by the relatively long distance the lithium-ions have to travel through the electrode material in the battery. The speed at which the ions make their way through the electrode material is also slow compared to that in electrolyte (the fluid between the electrode material). The curren...

Not much information right now. This certainly doesn't mark the first case in which the US Army has fiddled with hybrid vehicles, but the Maneuver Sustainment Vehicle (MSV) that the military is currently testing out most definitely ups the ante in other areas. The diesel-electric hybrid truck touts an insanely rugged frame designed to "sustain the concussion of a roadside bomb," and after it brushes off that weak attempt to render it immobile, the remote weapons system should inflict a fair amount of vengeance on the enemy. Moreover, the highly-spec'd machines also feature night vision capabilities, touchscreen controls, swarms of video cameras, and ballistic-grade glass to boot. Unfortunately, the limited fleet of MSVs are currently being recognized as "concept vehicles" to be used for demonstration purposes alone, but we're sure there's a number of defense contractors that could piece together a slightly less vicious version for your own garage if ...

DigiTimes daily IT news : "Toshiba lands more NAND flash orders from Apple but Samsung caught in 50nm bottleneck Bits + chips | Mar 26, 11:46 Besides a warm up in demand for NAND flash, Taiwan industry players attribute the recent price rise in the NAND flash spot market to extra orders that Toshiba landed from Apple and Samsung Electronics’ speculated bottleneck issues in its transition to 50nm production. Sources at Taiwan-based memory module makers said that they have received notification from both Samsung and Hynix Semiconductor about a price rise in April. Read more "

Here some photos taken at that huge exhibition Taipei Cycle Show - 2007

PARIS, March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Saft, [Euronext Paris: FR0010208165, SAFT] leader in the design, development and manufacture of high-end batteries for industry and defence, announces its certified results for the full year ended 31 December 2006. Results highlights - Full year 2006 sales of EUR 560.2m: - Above original guidance of EUR 540m - EUR 550m and revised guidance of EUR 550m + 1% - Good growth in core businesses resulted in net sales fall of only EUR 7.1m (-1.3%) compared with full year 2005 (at constant perimeter and constant exchange rates), despite c. EUR 35m fall in sales to the US Army. - Achieved profitability guidance, despite headwind from nickel costs (which more than doubled in 2006) and a very poor performance from RBS. After adjusting for non-recurring items in both 2005 and 2006: Full story