From the MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have just announced that one of their research teams has managed to design a new lithium-oxygen battery that significantly improves both in useful life and in energy efficiency to all previous versions. As a detail, compared to lithium-ion batteries, the lithium-oxygen models stand out for offering a very high density. As for data as such, it should be noted that one of these batteries can be 90% more efficient, five times lighter and ten times more powerful. One of its negative points, continuing with the comparison, is that it only offered about 2.000 charge cycles.
Due precisely to its great qualities, many teams of researchers have put to work to improve those negative points that, until now, made them impractical. Thanks to the results obtained by the MIT researchers, a new door could be opening, especially within a market such as that of electric cars and portable electronic devices.
The MIT lithium-oxygen battery surpasses many black spots from previous released versions.
As we said, this new type of batteries still present a series of drawbacks that make them impractical, including adding to the load cycles that today lose much of their energy in the form of heat, degrade relatively quickly and require quite expensive additional components dedicated to pumping oxygen in and out of the architecture, which, in turn, is, unlike the traditional ones, open cell.
Regarding the work carried out by MIT scientists in reference to lithium-oxygen batteries, it should be noted that they have achieved effect a variation of the battery chemistry in such a way that now it would be completely sealed so it could be used as a conventional battery. This modification causes the voltage to be reduced by five times, which finally leads to a much faster charge and improved efficiency, while avoiding the gaseous state of oxygen means that its useful life can be extended.
During the tests carried out on this system, the new prototype was exposed to 120 charge and discharge cycles showing a loss of less than 2%, which means that this battery would have a longer useful life. The team in charge of the development of this project hopes to test an optimized prototype during 2017.