A team of researchers at the IBM research laboratories announced that they have reached the first battery in the world completely free of dangerous and harmful materials and heavy metals, such as "cobalt" and "nickel" and others. The battery was made entirely of materials based on renewable materials originating from the sea, making the flammability and pollution of the environment very low, making it an "unprecedented" ultra-high battery, in addition to being lightweight and rechargeable within just five minutes, whatever the capacity of the battery, and able It saves energy at a higher density, thus allowing smaller batteries to be produced, and a longer operating time.
Details of the new battery came in a post recently published by director of next-generation battery material creations at IBM Research Laboratories, Dr. Young Hai Na, at the official blog of IBM research labs ibm.com/ blogs / research.
In it, she said, "The new battery is still in its early experimental stages, and it is being transferred for commercial development."
Safe materials
Dr. Yong Hai Na explained that the current batteries are manufactured and produced based on heavy metals, which are based on materials and mineral elements extracted from the ground and are depletable, as well as being dangerous and harmful to the environment and humans in the long term, including specifically the elements “cobalt” and “nickel” ». Therefore, the primary objective of the research team was to reach a battery completely free of dangerous heavy elements, used in the manufacture of safe materials that are not dangerous to humans or the environment in which they are used.
At the same time, they are sustainable, renewable, and not subject to depletion. To achieve this goal, the research team relied on a long history of innovations and improvements, provided by IBM laboratories in the field of materials science, during the past years.
Artificial intelligence
To advance the research, the team used a multidisciplinary approach combining materials science, molecular chemistry, electrical engineering, advanced battery laboratory equipment, artificial intelligence, machine learning and computer simulation, to access new alternative materials for heavy elements. The team implemented an artificial intelligence technology called "semantic enrichment", a technique that allows researchers to reach insights from millions of data points to clarify and test the validity of their hypothesis and the next steps, and then the pace of innovation can be accelerated to improve battery performance, by identifying more materials Safer and higher performance.
The team also benefited from the strong research infrastructure of the IBM research laboratories, which allows to study how things work at the molecular and atomic level, a method that has enabled a large number of scientists, including the research team building new battery technology, to study forces and movements Among the materials at the atomic level, incredibly super accurate. This enabled the team to access the exciting new technology of the battery completely different from the existing.
3 new articles
Dr. Yong Hai Na said: “The research team managed to discover three new materials, completely different from what is known from the materials, and it was not previously recorded as a battery compilation, or as it is of metals and heavy elements, and it can be extracted from sea water. What sets the basis for new technologies in the field of batteries, completely different from the technologies that are now prevailing all around the extractive minerals, which are obtained from the belly of the earth ».
During the initial tests, the batteries, made of the three new materials, demonstrated a performance capacity that exceeded the capabilities of the “lithium” ionizer batteries in several ways, foremost of which was high safety due to low flammability to unprecedented levels, low cost, faster charging time, and higher density in Energy storage, and the highest efficiency in performance, that is, the energy stored within it is exploited almost completely and not subject to loss. At this point, initial tests have proven that the new materials achieve an efficiency of a tool that exceeds 90%.
These new features were realized thanks to the new materials that enabled the research team to develop a new battery design, based on a safe liquid that is a unique mixture of "cathode and electrolyte", in the form of a material called "electrolyte" that has a high flash point. This combination showed a superior ability to prevent a phenomenon called lithium bifurcation during charging, which reduces the flammability, which is widely regarded as a major impediment to the use of lithium as the main material in the battery.
Eliminate obstacles
Dr. Yong Hai Na described these results as a discovery that holds great potential for the batteries used in electric vehicles, portable electronic devices, and power units used in other components of smart infrastructure, such as information and communication networks, production systems, and others. The new materials remove concerns about flammability, exorbitant cost and long charging time, as tests indicated that a safe seawater material battery needs less than five minutes to reach a 80% charge state, whatever the battery capacity. And such features make the fast, low-cost electric car fast charging a achievable goal, and this does not stop at electric cars only, but also includes small drones, which need small batteries, light weight, with a high storage density .
Basic design
After developing the basic design for the new battery, the research team conducted further tests to improve the design and raise its efficiency. Indeed, the team reached a storage density in the battery of 10 thousand watts of energy per liter, a level far exceeding what is achieved by the most powerful and most expensive of the current "lithium" batteries . Tests also showed that this battery can be designed for a long life cycle, making it an option for smart grid power applications and new energy infrastructures, where longevity and stability are key.
Commercial development
The director of innovations for materials for the next generation of batteries inside the IBM research laboratories, Dr. Yong Hai Na, confirmed that the results achieved by the research team caught the attention of many companies and parties interested in the battery industry, and expressed their desire to continue to work on these results to transfer them from exploratory research In the early stages, to commercial development. In this context, Mercedes-Benz, the automobile company, joined efforts of IBM research laboratories in North America to contribute to the development, and so did Central Glass, one of the largest suppliers of battery production materials in the world, and Seedus. Manufacturer of batteries.
The materials are derived from the sea, and developed with advanced chemistry, atomic physics and artificial intelligence.