Researchers have developed new technologies that converts atmospheric carbon dioxide into carbon nanotubes for use in batteries thereby paving way for a additional fruitful and significantly less costly reuse of atmospheric carbon. Headquartered in Azusa, CA, Contour Power is managed by a globe-class team of battery industry leaders from CalTech, Energizer, Duracell, ConocoPhillips, Hewlett-Packard and Ultralife. In function published this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology , the MIT group showed that lithium ions in a battery electrolyte react with oxygen-containing chemical groups on the surface of the carbon nanotubes in the film. The team at MIT theorizes that a carbon nanotube battery could make as much as one hundred occasions the voltage of an equivalent weight of lithium ion.
It is identified that the inclusion of carbon as an additive in the creation of electrodes, or as a coating of the electrodes enhances the electronic conductivity and capacity performance of Li-ion and other battery systems. Paper Battery Company’s technologies is based on by no means-noticed-prior to combinations of supercapacitor power and power densities, combined with ultrathin footprints and placement alternatives. The next step in the method is to cycle the battery although in TEM so that the reside deterioration can be observed.
The project builds upon a solar thermal electrochemical process (STEP) that can produce carbon nanofibers from ambient carbon dioxide created by the Licht group and described in the journal Nano Letters last August. The group demonstrated that the carbon nanotubes gave a smaller increase to the performance, which was amplified when the battery was charged swiftly. Without this hybrid structure, the silicon’s expansion causes it to peel off, damaging the battery.
The researchers estimate that with a battery expense of $325 per kWh (the typical cost of lithium-ion batteries reported by the Department of Energy in 2013), a kilogram of carbon dioxide has a value of about $18 as a battery material – six occasions more than when it is converted to methanol – a quantity that only increases when moving from substantial batteries applied in electric autos to the smaller sized batteries utilised in electronics.
In addition to paving the way for improved consumer electronics, this technology could also have precise uses in industrial and military applications. This high surface region is critical both to the higher storage capacity of the electrodes, as well as their high power: due to the fact lithium is stored on the surface, it can move in and out of the electrode rapidly, enabling quicker charging and discharging of the battery.