Experts from Dalhousie University may have figured out how to build a battery that can power an astounding five million miles of travel, according to Interesting Engineering.
The breakthrough involves how the crystalline electrode is structured inside the pack, and it could be a game-changer for electric vehicles.
As part of the effort, the researchers partnered with fellow northerners at the University of Saskatchewan. They used the latter team's Canadian Light Source to study the unique batteries. The device is a synchrotron, which leverages accelerated particles to produce ultrabright light. It provides detailed X-ray images that allow for atomic-level analysis, according to a news release, CLS, and ScienceDirect.
Under scrutiny was what the experts billed as a new type of lithium-ion battery material. The single-crystal electrode cycled repeatedly for six years with more than 20,000 charge-discharge rounds before dropping to 80% capacity. That's a crucial performance decline benchmark typically reached by standard packs much sooner. The team also studied a "regular" lithium-ion unit, which lowered to 80% capacity at 2,400 cycles, all per the lab summary.
"The great thing about doing this kind of measurement at a synchrotron is we can actually look at this at a microscopic level without having to take the cell apart," Dalhousie doctoral candidate and CLS senior scientist Toby Bond said, per IE.
Most battery electrodes are composed of extremely small particles, often graphite for anodes, that are many times thinner than a human hair. Those particles, in turn, are made of smaller crystals that are "held together like snowflakes in a snowball," per IE's description.
But the new design is more akin to a giant ice cube, which can better withstand the rigors of charge-discharge cycles, the report continued.
The proof was highlighted by CLS, which showed that the regular battery electrodes were cracking and degrading during testing. The crystal version, however, showed little signs of stress, according to Dalhousie.
"[It] looked very much like a brand-new cell. If these batteries can outlast the rest of the EV by such a large amount and still be in good shape internally, that makes them ideal candidates for reuse or repurposing in other applications — like storing energy for intermittent wind and solar farms," per the summary.
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Single-crystal electrodes could unlock unbelievable longevity for EV packs, eliminating them as a "limiting factor" for the cleaner rides, as IE reported.
That's important because an EV prevents thousands of pounds of air pollution annually when replacing a fossil-burning car. The smog is linked to worsening childhood asthma, among other health concerns.
For the industry's part, EV and plug-in hybrid sales set a global record last year, rising 25% to more than 17 million vehicles, per Reuters.
"We really need these vehicles to last as long as possible, because the longer you drive them, the better its improvement on the carbon footprint is," Bond told IE.
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