Science in the Snug: Do Android Phones Dream of Electric Cars - What Next for the Humble Battery?
4:00pm - 5:00pm /
Thursday 15th October 2020
- Sara Majeed
- Admission: FREE
- Book now
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Two questions rattle around regularly in battery research. Can we get anything better than lithium-ion batteries? If so, how long do we have to wait for it?
On paper metal-air batteries (such as lithium-air) offer chemists a tantalising vision of a battery system that will not only surpass the energy storage of state-of-the-art lithium-ion, but dramatically exceed it by a factor of three to five. Extrapolation of the possible practical energy storage of lithium-air technology could result in an affordable electric vehicle being able to travel over 300 miles without recharge. A worthy goal indeed, if we are to encourage significant percentages of the population to part from their fossil fuelled vehicles. However pleasant it is to dream, we have to eventually wake up to reality in order to address the (long) list of research challenges that need to be overcome.
This lecture will begin by discussing the present state of play of lithium-ion batteries and then move onto introducing metal-air batteries and how some of the challenges to bring this technology into reality are being met by ongoing activity within a research group led by Professor Hardwick.
On paper metal-air batteries (such as lithium-air) offer chemists a tantalising vision of a battery system that will not only surpass the energy storage of state-of-the-art lithium-ion, but dramatically exceed it by a factor of three to five. Extrapolation of the possible practical energy storage of lithium-air technology could result in an affordable electric vehicle being able to travel over 300 miles without recharge. A worthy goal indeed, if we are to encourage significant percentages of the population to part from their fossil fuelled vehicles. However pleasant it is to dream, we have to eventually wake up to reality in order to address the (long) list of research challenges that need to be overcome.
This lecture will begin by discussing the present state of play of lithium-ion batteries and then move onto introducing metal-air batteries and how some of the challenges to bring this technology into reality are being met by ongoing activity within a research group led by Professor Hardwick.