There is already a lithium-air battery that matches the autonomy of electric cars with petrol cars.
From the Technology University of Sydney (UTS), Australia, a team of researchers led by Guoxiu Wang have designed a chemical substance to boost the performance of lithium-air batteries in order to give electric vehicles have the same range as petrol–powered vehicles.
Automotive users prefer a petrol (gasoline) car to an electrical one for two main reasons: the price and the distance, an electric car can travel between refuelling, is significantly certainly less than the distance a petrol car can travel between filling up the tank.
Lithium-air batteries (Li-O2) can achieve high energy density. But to date, this and other advantages have been offset by problems such as low discharge capacity, modest energy efficiency, and adverse chemical effects during operation.
Nowadays, using this new chemical compound (substance), all these problems can be solved. In addition, it has made possible the development of a new lithium-air battery with long life and very high energy efficiency.
The researcher's team indicate that this new lithium-air battery has 46 times greater discharge capacity, a low charge surge of 0.7 V and a cycle life that exceeds 1,400 cycles.
“The ability of next-generation lithium-air batteries to extend the range between recharges would be a significant advance for the electric vehicle industry" Wang emphasizes.
The argument for betting on this technology is that they are the only ones that can match petrol in terms of energy density. Lithium-air batteries have a theoretical specific energy of 11,140 Wh/kg.
This means that in addition to having greater development potential in the density section, we can also talk about economic cheap batteries. Two important arguments that have kept this research going for more than a decade, and that now, seem to be facing their final stretch, preparing itself as an alternative for the next generation of electric cars, which are expected that arrived around 2025.
References:
Redacción, N., 2022. La batería que puede darles a los automóviles eléctricos la misma autonomía que los de gasolina. [online] Noticias de la Ciencia y la Tecnología (Amazings® / NCYT®). Available at: <https://noticiasdelaciencia.com/art/43695/la-bateria-que-puede-darles-a-los-automoviles-electricos-la-misma-autonomia-que-los-de-gasolina> [Accessed 24 February 2022].
forococheselectricos. 2022. Este avance permite a las baterías de litio-aire igualar la densidad energética de la gasolina. [online] Available at: <https://forococheselectricos.com/2022/02/baterias-litio-aire-densidad-energetica-coches-combustion.html> [Accessed 24 February 2022].