Lithium Battery Electrode Extend Battery Lifetime, Shorten Charge Time by Element of 10

Chemistry engineer is so astonishing for numerous unbelievable achievements made through replacing just one element . Li-ion battery is a vital improvement in battery technology, but li-ion batteries are not perfect enough.

Recently a scientist in Northwest University has developed a new electrode, which can raise lithium-ion battery capacity by 10% and reduce charge time.Many good ideas emerge this year, for instance, electrical gels to battery film for storing energy. However, li-ion battery is still not unsatisfactory for all applications from laptops to electric autos. Latest engineering presents a balance in between power storage and recharge time...neither fantastic, but fantastic sufficient for now. Li-ion battery operate by passing lithiun atoms from one particular end in the battery to another as a result of the anode and cathode. Charging and density is restricted by how numerous lithium atoms can pass as a result of the anode, produced up of prolonged, thin (1 atom thin) graphene sheets, which may only accommodate 1 lithium atom for each six carbon atoms.

Researchers have also experimented with replacing carbon with silicon, which may hold additional lithium atoms, but the silicon deforms and loses charging capacity after a quick although. So what you end up with is actually a type of lithium targeted visitors jam, as not sufficient lithium can make it by the anode to speed up charging or boost assortment. Having said that, by putting a thin layer of silicon between the graphene sheets, and building minute "holes" within the graphene sheets, researchers had been capable to increase energy density by a factor of 10, though simultaneously decreasing charging time, also by a aspect of ten.

This would imply that latest battery technology can be enhanced significantly, devoid of significantly raising prices.What that would indicate can be a current Nissan LEAF would possess a range of 730 miles, and a empty-to-full charging time of about 3 minutes on a Degree 3 charger.

Boston-Power Increases Another $30 Million for Lithium Batteries

Boston-Power, manufacturer of “next-generation" lithium-ion battery cells, modules and systems, adds $30 million in another equity round.

Existing investor GSR Ventures, led the round, and long-existing investors Oak Investment Partners and Foundation Asset Management also participated.

In September, Boston-Power raised $125 million in growth capital and from Chinese government stimulus programs - comprising a combination of grants, low-interest loans and related financial and tax incentives.

The funding is used to expand manufacturing, research and development, and business development activities in China.

The company recently broke ground on its new manufacturing site in China's Shanghai Corridor and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2012. The plant will be able to produce 400-megawatt hours (MWh) of lithium-ion battery cells a year.

Boston-Power is also establishing a world-class R&D and EV battery engineering facility in Beijing.

It's headquarters, in Westborough, Massachusetts, are responsible for intellectual property development, R&D, global customer support, sales and business development and partnerships with advanced research organizations in the Boston area.

Designed to fuel a wide range of applications, its flagship offerings, Swing^® and Sonata^®, serve as the foundation for a new era of longer lasting, faster charging, safer and environmentally sustainable batteries, the company says.

Swing is used in electric and plug-in vehicles and utility energy storage applications. Sonata is used in portable power and notebook computer markets.

Boston-Power has 150 patents.

Reference: http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/23268

World's Largest Lithium Battery Factory Established in Russian

The world's biggest lithium battery production factory has established in Russia. The Liotech plant, that is a joint venture in between RUSSANO and a Chinese holding provider called Thunder Sky, is located near Novosibirsk and the total investment inside the plant has been 13.5 billion rubles. The huge plant covers an area of 40,000 square meters.

The Liotech will make batteries in many capacities for unique makes use of such as within the EV transport industry. The LiFePo4 batteries made at the plant is going to be 200Ah, 300Ah, and 700Ah.

The new Liotech plant will have a capacity of nearly 1 million batteries each year. That could be enough to supply lithium batteries for 500,000 electric buses. Liotech's batteries are going to be identified for high energy density and can perform in a wide range of temperatures. The batteries which are applied in transport are said to be capable of getting utilised inside the electric power industry for ten to 15 years just after they're no longer usable in EVs.

"The new factory is an outstanding example in the local impact of transferring the foreign high technologies. It has led to construction of contemporary production facilities. When plant capacity has been met, additional than 500 people will probably be employed. In realizing a program to replace imports, we're generating an entire cluster of new high-tech production for supplies and components connected for the batteries and also an engineering center which can be an exceptional synergy," RUSNANO Managing Director Sergey Polikarpov stated.

Uses for batteries produced at the Liotech plant, other than EVs and electricity storage, include things like mobile emergency power and uninterruptable power supplies. The firm's batteries have no memory effects just after numerous charge and discharge cycles.

The service life for the rechargeable batteries in an EV are going to be much more than 600,000 kilometers.

Reference: http://www.dailytech.com/Russian+Liotech+Plant+is+Worlds+Largest+Lithium+Battery+Facility/article23564.htm

Some Tips on How to Maintain Li-ion Batteries

1. Charge li-ion battery no more than 12 hours for the first time. When we buy electronic products powered by battery, sellers always tell us that first charge time for lithium battery should reach 12 hours. Actually, this opinion is not right. Unlike Ni-CD or nickle metal hydride batteries, lithium batteries are activated before delivery Also its self-discharge is slow; thus it's unnecessary to first charge time on li-ion battery can not be that long. Lithium battery could reach to best status after experiencing 3 or 5 cycles.

2. Do not use poor-quality charger. Many friends care their electronic devices very much, but often ignore the maintenance of lithium ion battery. In terms of battery charger, original charger is the best choice; some quality charger with famous brands may be used. Lithium battery charger of poor quality would cause shorter cycles. Some may even causes explosion or fire.

3. Do not often overcharge battery. Frequent overcharge will  deteriorate battery under high temperature. Yet full charge is enough, or lithium ion battery will damage in case that no overcharge protection function exists.

4. Avoid contacting metal. Keep lithium ion battery's contact clean, and do not let battery contact touch metal; otherwise short circuit may occur;

5. Do not often use battery in high or low temperature environment. Li-ion batteries have own proper work and storage temperature, Long-time work under high or low temperature will affects lifetime of lithium battery pack.

6. Often use or charge battery. If electric device or lithium ion battery unused over three months, we should recharge battery regularly before storage (often 30-70% remaining capacity).

7. Do not use full-charged lithium battery. Temperature might be very high after battery charge, if use at once, device internal temperature  will rise soon, which could affect electronics component.

Reference: http://largebattery.livejournal.com/880.html

Lithium Battery New Technology: Capacity Could Rise by 10 Times

It was reported by foreign media that research team in Northwestern University declared they had found ways to breakthrough current lithium-ion battery charge capacity and charge speed restriction. New method could not only increase charge capacity by ten times, but also shorten charge time to previous one tenth. Scientists said this technology could be on the market within three to five years.

Then how this technology work?

first of all, we should understand battery charge capacity is restricted by charge density, while charge speed depends on how fast lithium ions could reach anode among electrolyte. Battery cathode of current technology is made up of layers of graphite flakes.

Previous scientists once attempted to change carbon-based graphite flakes with silicon-based film because silicon is more efficient to contain lithiun ions than the former. However, during charge, silicon could fast shrink and extend to shatter, which by contrast loses charge capacity.

Besides, In present technology, graphite flake shape mainly affects charge speed. Graphite flakes are quite thin (as thin as depth of a carbon atom) and long, thus during charge, it takes lithium ions a long time to arrive at anode.

For this new technology, research team has mixed layers of silicon between graphite flakes, employing graphite ducfility to stablize silicon's volume change when charging. In this way, silicon could raise charge capacity by 10 times. In addition, research team also reduce charge time by 10 times through creating numerous tiny hole (about 10-20 nano) on graphite flakes to enable a shortcut for lithium ions to quickly reach anode.

At present, this research has merely explored improvement of battery anode. Next research team will make a study on battery cathode improvement. These study is expected to have more breakthough on li-ion battery technology.

Efficient Ways to Extend Laptop Work Time

Currently lithium batteries are widely used on laptops as backup power. So far, li-ion batteries, with features of rechargeable, long lifetime and great cycle times, are proved to an ideal power for laptop. Yet two many laptop users have complaint that work time of lithium battery is too short to meet their requirment.

In deed, this problem relates to inherent defects of lithium batteries, however, there are many ways to save laptop power in the application and inactive process.

a. laptop under use:
1. Turn down laptop screen intensity;
2. Playing CD, DVD or music would consumer much power. Only playing music when necessary;
3. Do not use laptop at too much high or low temperature;
4. Use correct AC power adapter;
5. Use battery management software standardly configured for laptops and select most proper power solution to
extend laptop work time;
6. Intel CPU has adopted a new Speed Step technology, which could reduce power consumption through adding basic frequency to lower CPU running in the mobile Pentium processor. In this system, battery optimization mode refers to a best balance striken between laptop performance and battery's work time, when laptop uses laptop. Therefore, according to presnet load condition, laptop could use Speed Step processor to auto adjust speed and save battery consumption.

b. in the idle status:
1. Turn off unused wireless receiver. Present laptop are commonly configured with battery mode matching its work status. Thus choose mode before using laptops;
2. set standby time for screen, hard disk and system sleep so that laptop could be free from full-load operation in the idle status.

Reference: http://www.large-battery.com/news/439.htm

How to Fix Rechargeable Lithium Batteries

Rechargeable battery utilized on power devices along with other transportable products might be reconditioned by way of substituting cells of battery packs. Obtaining a NiCd and NiMH cell is comparatively quick; seeking the right Li-ion cell may be harder. Naked Li-ion cells aren't accessible off the shelf and a reliable battery producer may sell to qualified pack assemblers. Possible risk or inconsistency of substituted battery cells frequently happens because of improper use or shortage of PCM When mending a Li-ion pack be sure that every cell is properly attached to a protection circuit. .
If a relatively new pack just has a faulty cell, you could substitute just the affected cell. On an aged battery, it is best to substitute all cells. A cell mismatch would happen in the event that full-capacity new cell included amongst other used cells Matching the substitute cell with one of a reduced ranking might function however this repair is often of short duration. Make sure you remember merely recondition lithium batteries with li-ion cells.
A well-matched battery pack implies that all cells possess identical capacities. An anomaly could be driven by a chain in which the weakest connection determines the functioning of the battery.
Capacity selection isn't that important for ageing battery pack recondition in case nimh battery charger could tackle tiny disparity. For it requires charger some time to charge a cell with greater capacity. The state-of-charge of all cells charged the very first time ought to have a similar charge level, and also the open-circuit voltages should be within 10 % of one another
The question that whether ni-mh battery pack can substitute nickel cadmium battery is usually questioned. In theory, the above is possible while charge might be a difficulty NiMH uses a far more identified charge algorithm than NiCd. A current ni-mh battery pack charger can charge both NiMH and NiCd; the old NiCd charger could overcharge NiMH by improperly detecting full charge state and also employing a trickle charge that is certainly too high.
Welding the cells may be the merely dependable method of getting dependable link. With regard to welding, steps should be taken to prevent overheat from heat diversion to battery cells.
Simple Tips while Fixing Battery Packs

1.Only link cells which are paired and have the similar state-of-charge. Do not connect cells of diverse chemistry, ageing level or capacity.

2.Never charge or discharge Li-ion batteries without a operating protection circuit unwatched. Each cell should be supervised separately.

3. Include a temperature sensor which disturbs the current on high heat.
4. Utilize a slow charge only when cells get various state-of-charge.

5. Pay special attention when utilizing an unknown brand of cells. Possible unsafety might are present on these battery cells.

6. Li-ion is sensitive to reverse polarization.

7. Prevent charging lithium batteries with obvious problems or single voltage lower than 1.5V..

8. When fixing Li-ion, make sure that every cell is linked to a protection circuit.

Pros and Cos of lithium battery

For many years, Ni-Cd have been the only suitable battery of movable items from wireless communications to portable computer. Ni-MH battery along with li-ion batteries appeared In early 1990s, fighting nose-to-nose to attain customer's acceptance. Presently, lithium-ion is quickest improving and most good battery chemistry.

Favorable aspectsSubstantial energy denseness - potential for yet greater capacities;

Does not need lengthened priming when new. Single frequent charge is all that's;

Comparatively modest self-discharge - self-discharge is less that of Ni-Cd batteries;

Minimal Service - little regular discharge is essential; there's no memory;

Custom battery cells can offer extremely high current on usages for example power equipment;

RestraintsNeeds protection PCM to preserve voltage and current within secure restrictions.

Suffer from (blank) ageing, even if not in use - storage in a cool area under 40% charge lowers aging effect.

Transportation constraints - transport of big numbers of lithium battery would be governed by regulating control. That restriction does not be applicable to personal carry-on batteries.

Costly to manufacture - about 40 % larger in cost compared with nickel-cadmium.

Not completely mature - metals and chemicals are usually altering on a continuous groundwork.

Reference: http://largebattery.livejournal.com/569.html