Mystery Material Makes Batteries Safer

AlphaAtlas

[H]ard|Gawd
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Advancements in lithium Ion battery tech are largely responsible for explosive growth in other areas of technology, such as smartphones, electric cars, and autonomous robots. But those applications are often hampered by a unfortunate propery of lithium ion batteries: they tend to explode. IEEE Spectrum reports that a company called Amionx has developed a "mystery material" that largely mitigates that issue. A 1 to 5 micrometer layer of the material inside the battery is reportedly enough to make them significantly more stable, while increasing the battery's durability and only reducing cell capacity by "1 to 3 percent". Spectrum says that Amionx plans to license the technology "for use in a commercial product by the end of 2019," and they're trying to court even more manufacturers now. CNET also did an extensive write up on Amionx a few months ago.

Check out their video report here.


Paul Kohl, a chemical engineer at Georgia Tech, and Huazhen Fang, a mechanical engineer at the University of Kansas, both say that Amionx is taking a unique approach to battery safety that they haven’t seen before. Other research has focused primarily on the separator, the electrolyte, or the circuitry around the cell. "Compared to many other R&D efforts, this technology is more pragmatic, and could be more suitable for commercialization in the short term," Fang says. But Kohl says SafeCore won't change the fact that some manufacturers use low-grade materials and fail to implement proper quality control, which makes the batteries they produce more prone to fires. And these manufacturers aren't likely to license SafeCore. "You applaud the effort," he says, "but it's going to be a minor contributor to battery safety."
 
If what they claim is true and is made mandatory for electric cars, it would take away a lot of the detractors who claim batteries aren't safe for vehicles. It might also help with decreasing charge times if batteries can be made more stable during charging.
 
Thats all nice i say as a avid liop user ( 18650 - 26650 and various 3 - 5 cell batteries for RC )

But i am more focused on other technology batteries, that are also safer and have even higher energy densities.

PS. i keep all my batteries in a oven in my kitchen, there are around 100.000 MAH in there if fully charged, but needless to say i keep them at store charge, in sizes they range from 300 MAH to 20.000 MAH for the largest ones.

And yes i don't do any cooking in the oven, i cant be bothered with cooking for 20 minutes or more what take me 5 minutes to eat.
 
That goop looks like 3M stretch tape when it comes out of the machine
 
Hmm...the company's name is suspiciously similar to "Amniotic". And, their production facilities are close, very close, to planned parenthood facilities. Soylent Green?

/s
 
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By "Mystery Material" they mean they figured out that applying a small layer of pre-oxidized material over the top of the lithium prevents it from starting a chain reaction and thus exploding.

Either way its going to be made in China so trade secrets be damned.
 
By "Mystery Material" they mean they figured out that applying a small layer of pre-oxidized material over the top of the lithium prevents it from starting a chain reaction and thus exploding.

Either way its going to be made in China so trade secrets be damned.

I wonder if chinese made phones will have the technology before anyone that legally licenses it?
 
If what they claim is true and is made mandatory for electric cars, it would take away a lot of the detractors who claim batteries aren't safe for vehicles. It might also help with decreasing charge times if batteries can be made more stable during charging.

I know of few "detractors" for EV's that consider battery safety to be a major concern. Certainly it gets brought up as something that is a concern, but rarely anything more than a poorly designed fuel system on an ICE vehicle. The overwhelming majority of issues from any credible source I see talked about are undeniable problems when it comes to range and battery recharge time.
 
My wife just got me an Eneloop kit for my birthday.

Does that make me part of the Battery Master Race?
 
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