Research is underway on a new class of rechargeable powerpack known as a lithium-air or lithium-oxygen battery. These devices could store more than 10 times the energy found in current lithium-ion batteries, which would greatly extent the time required between recharging cycles. Because lithium-air uses freely available oxygen as a cathode reactant, the weight of the battery significantly decreased.
These power cells could even beat the energy density of hydrogen fuel cells, making one efficient lithium-air car battery able to store the equivalent energy of a tank of gasoline. The battery technology is not yet commercially available, although it’s actively being developed in several places.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a lithium-air battery with three times the energy density of any existing battery on the market today. One prototype is pictured above. MIT researchers state that some of the issues that must be dealt with before commercialization of these new laptop batteries is safety in operation and insuring that the battery is robust enough to survive many charging cycles.
Although MIT has discovered that electrodes with gold or platinum show a much higher level of efficiency than simple carbon, lithium in metallic form is highly reactive to water. This poses a problem should water make its way into the oxygen inlet of current lithium-air prototype batteries. Researchers are working to better understand how the chemistry of these substances affects longevity through discharge and recharge cycles as well.
Some companies have stated a ten-year goal for full commercialization of lithium-air battery technology. MIT researchers believe that small portable electronics will be the first to benefit from the improved batteries, with products such as electric cars taking advantage of the devices after they come down in price and become more widely available.
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[…] Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a lithium-air battery with three times the energy density of any existing battery on the market today. One prototype is […]