Li-ion Batteries Blow Up Because They Breed Nanowire Crystals

DooKey

DooKey

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Thanks to researchers at Stanford we are getting closer to finally figuring out why Li-ion batteries are blowing up. They published this paper on Thursday. Basically growths called dendrites pierce through the separator, a membrane placed in between the cathode and anode causing a short circuit. They still aren't sure what causes the dendrites to form, but they are working on that in the hopes of one day designing safer and longer-lasting batteries. Hey, Elon, look these guys up!

The researchers examined thousands of lithium metal dendrites forming in different electrolytes and also the solid electrolyte interphase, a coating that forms on the metal electrodes. Cryo-EM, a technique that won this year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry, was vital to studying the dendrites in more detail. Traditional transmission electron (TEM) microscopy techniques which involve aiming a beam of electrons through a sample destroyed the dendrites.
 
Must find something to spend their grant money or lose it next year I guess. So much time and money is wasted on dumb studies which end up with no real useful answers.
 
I wonder what the man who invented the Li-Ion said when the final prototype exploded? Goodenough?
 
Mohonri said:
This seems like old news to me. We've known for a loooong time that dendrites form and cause batteries to fail.
Click to expand...
Knowing that they form is different from knowing how they form :).

"There are some proposed theories on how dendrites form but the exact mechanism is still unclear. This is because there has not yet been a technique that can study the native state of these dendrites at high resolution without damaging them."
 
I thought that they had an article a few weeks ago that said when they introduce a small amount of concrete particles in the battery manufacturing process that it greatly reduced the explosion possibility. I will have to look for it.
 
Tawnos said:
Knowing that they form is different from knowing how they form :).

"There are some proposed theories on how dendrites form but the exact mechanism is still unclear. This is because there has not yet been a technique that can study the native state of these dendrites at high resolution without damaging them."
Click to expand...

There was a paper released a couple months back which stated the dendrites seem to form about impurities in the Lithium paste.

It is well known that electrons don't like switching potential on the fly, which is what happens when you introduce a material change. This causes them to release photon energy as the eV orbit changes, usually in the form of infrared (heat). This is likely the catalyst behind the reaction of the dendrite formation.

http://cas.sdss.org/dr2/en/proj/advanced/spectraltypes/energylevels.asp

What would be an interesting experiment would be to take a hyper refined pure lithium ion paste and then flow electricity through it and then aim a super tight IR laser as a spot and look for dendrite growth afterwards This would be the indicator that heat causes dendrite growth.
 
Just like Lithium Ion! Jump a barrier breed up a problem and make it worse where they now are. WHERE'S THE WALL TRUMP!!!!
 
Don't dendrites normally form off of impurities?
I am talking about snowflakes and hail.

Kind of like how glass cracks where the forming imperfections are.
or Kind of like how metals crack where the mixture was not homogeneous.
 
In lead-free soldering, pure tin solders do this readily.

There are additives to decrease it, but satellites were lost before we knew wtf.
 
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