Why This Accidental Battery Breakthrough Matters

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[Bitterjackal]

Idea for an episode. A bi-annual update on all the "Battery Breakthroughs" and where they are in their development process. Seems like theres a breakthrough every other month but we don't often hear much after that. It gives the impression the breakthroughs have gone nowhere when it's really just a long development process/obstacles to mass production and it gets people like me cranky whenever we see the words "Battery Breakthrough".

[TheBitGuy]

Call me skeptical. I've seen news of a new battery breakthrough about once a week for the last 10 years. And none of these have come to market. I think some of them are scams for investment money. I think some are actually lies by fossil fuel companies to delay their EV purchase by convincing customers that todays EVs will be obsolete next year, so people should wait. And others may actually be true but end up having some serious drawback that makes them inferior, such as cost, cycle life, temperature tolerances, etc. So, as always with these breakthroughs I just say "I'll believe it when I see it."

[NinetooNine]

I know you mentioned it a little but there should have been a bigger focus on just how much lighter these batteries would be compared to lithium-Ion batteries. They are in the order of 1/3rd the weight of existing batteries. That is the reason the drone and aerospace industry is what they are aiming at. Also, lithium will largely be a solved problem in the next 5 years. The Salton Sea production of Lithium is coming online. They will literally 1.5x the amount of lithium on the market over the next 10 years.

[Sercil]

As much as I like to listen to battery breakthroughs, I'm not sure I've ever heard from any of them again after a while. I get that this kind of stuff takes years to just leave the lab and then even more years to go into mass production for consumer products... but pretty much everything cool I heard from was never spoken of again, even in such a long timeframe.

[stephenjordan]

Given that I can recall how short of a time AA batteries ran my Walkman in the early 80’s, we’ve sure come a long way with battery technology, but I love that these new discoveries will lead to safer, more sustainable and longer lasting batteries with greater capacity.

[stucorbishley]

Really appreciate the interview segments, I know it’s not easy arranging expert interviews, it does round out the whole video. Thoroughly enjoyed this one! 👍

[Merennulli]

I really hope we get a spread of useful battery chemistry out of this. I hate how heavily overinvested we are becoming on lithium to the point where grid storage, EVs and portable electronics are eating each other's supply chains to the detriment of all. Even having a straight up lesser option for things that don't need the best would alleviate the pressure at least.

[BobHannent]

Sodium-Sulphur would be amazing for grid scale storage, especially when their manufacture can be linked to desalination plants to supply fresh water.
Perhaps something for those Middle Eastern desalination plants to feed, especially in a post oil era.

[TechnoMageB]

I recall reading an article in 2016 about a discovery [by accident] that using a gel instead of liquid in Li-Ion battery increased the cycle life from 2k-8k range to well past 100k. Further testing needed to be done to see how feasible it was in the real world. Haven't heard a peep since.

Now with this sulfur option, it doesn't render the other solution obsolete, but the higher energy density certainly gives an advantage. Application purpose would be the driver of which technology was chosen.

[acanuck]

This was really an impressive installment of your series, Matt. Your engagement of the Drexel team's scientist, Dr Vibha Kalra, really helped to make me understand the importance of this breakthrough. I would be intrigued by follow-up programs about the sulphur-sodium battery idea. Thank you!

[murdelabop]

Nomenclature! Everything you mentioned are all "lithium ion" batteries. What you're referring to as "lithium ion" are actually NCMA chemistries, which use various combinations of nickel, cobalt, manganese, and aluminum in their matrix.

[travisgowen]

So cool to hear the last author on the paper talk about the research. This seems pretty awesome.

Also just a minor thing, a 700% increase is actually an eight fold increase, not seven fold.

[rutessian]

As with many of these breakthroughs, I'll believe it when i see it.

[rgeraldalexander]

I generally skip the almost daily "battery breakthrough" videos, but knew from past experience I could expect some grounded and accurate information here...Thanks Matt!
Sure hope this process is able to be scaled up to produce low cost high performance batteries. Sounds great, and five or six years is not too long to have an impact on EV adoption.

[JANL]

I would like to see how many of the "breakthroughs that matter" shown on this channel over the past 2 years turned out to be vaporware.

[TwilightMysts]

This is one of the critical steps needed to make large scale EV implementation viable. Glad to see some progress.

[joeking]

You do a great deal of research, and well done for getting high level researchers to give you their time.

[vladimirnekic]

Our biggest need as a human civilization. Better batteries... very exciting.

[hiltonian_]

A couple of things to consider about battery development:

Speaking as a renewable energy professional, former EV builder, and long time battery geek, I have observed that if you want to know if a battery will last ten years, it takes…ten years. Ten years using the batteries twenty different ways.

Chemistries that work well in the lab don’t necessarily work well at high discharge rates, with thermal cycling, or with the vibration and jolts of vehicular use.

Reducing size and weight has consequences. No battery is 100% efficient and the heat of charging and discharging has to go somewhere. The more energy you pack in a small space the harder it is to get the waste heat energy out. Less surface area per volume. The less mass, the less to transmit that heat to the surface of the battery. There’s a limit, even with active cooling, to how energy dense you can make a battery. At some point you have to space cells to make it artificially less dense.

I blame sci-fi for the dilithium crystal fallacy: we’ll extract a city’s worth of power out of this thing the size of a baseball without it glowing white hot and exploding. No problem.

[ChrispyNut]

"Huh, that's weird", the source of the greatest breakthroughs. :)