Submitted by DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory DOE Pulse highlights work being done at the Department of Energy's national laboratories. DOE Pulse is distributed every two weeks. Lithium batteries made with the experimental electrolyte last about 50 percent longer than with competing electrolytes. The electrolyte is safer and more environmentally friendly to produce than others-the waste products are essentially glass, phosphate and nitrogen compounds, which can be converted to fertilizer. The team is pursuing development collaborations with the space and satellite industry.
Electrolytes are the key to creating a battery's electrical current.
They separate the positive and negative electrodes. Positive ions such as lithium can move through the electrolyte, but negatively charged electrons can't, so electrons travel out of the battery and through the device being. Conventional electrolytes are made of toxic salt solutions within a liquid or gel base, such as a car battery's water-based electrolyte. The chemists needed the polymer to hold shape without interfering with its ability to transport lithium ions. They discovered that the ceramic creates a stable scaffold and the liquid polymers weave through it like ribbons.