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See-Through Batteries: Testing for Safer, More Powerful Energy Storage

Efficiency-reducing dendrites are the metal wire forming phenomenon that consumes electrolytes while new-generation lithium metal batteries are charging. University of Michigan engineers have developed a visualization cell as a 'window' to look inside the potentially explosive process. For the first time, high-resolution video is able to capture surface activity as the lithium metal battery cycles through, while comparisons to the chemical changes can be made in real time. This could lead to the expansion of longer lasting, more powerful batteries for electric vehicles and longer power storage from the nation's energy infrastructure.

Topics:
Automotive Batteries Energy Energy Efficiency Energy Storage Imaging Power Test & Measurement Transportation Video

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    Transcript

    00:00:02 [music] >>Dasgupta: This dendrite that grows inside your battery can lead to two major issues. First, it reduces efficiency. It consumes the liquid electrolyte inside of your battery, and this directly reduces capacity. Because they're metal, they can form little wires internally inside of the battery that can short circuit the battery. [fire blowing in wind] This can lead to significant safety concerns, such as formation of fires, etc. Lithium ion, while it has really accelerated our use of portable devices over the last two decades, is reaching it's fundamental limit. However, if we move to lithium metal electrodes, we will be able to increase this

    00:00:42 capacity by a factor of ten. This means that your battery can store ten times as much charge for the same weight of the electrode. >>Wood: So imagine a world where in one single charge of your battery, you can go from New York to Denver without ever having to stop to refuel. These are all very real realities with next generation lithium metal batteries. However, in order for lithium metal batteries to become a commercial reality, dendrites are a problem that have to be solved by the research community. >>Dasgupta: Most battery research is performed in small coin cells which are actually metallic encased batteries.

    00:01:17 We make them, we plug it into a cycler and we see how much energy can we move back and forth. As you pull it apart and look inside, that doesn't truly reflect how it behaved when you were actually charging and discharging it. In order to gain deeper understanding inside the battery we literally created a window to be able to look inside. >>Wood: We call it a visualization cell, we shortened it to "Vis Cell." [mechanical whirring] [tapping] The materials that are used in lithium metal batteries

    00:01:44 are incredibly reactive. [clinking] We actually have to bring them into this glove box argon protected environment where no moisture or oxygen is present. This prevents any side reactions that can lead to explosions or fires. We just don't want it to blow up. That's true...we don't want it to blow up. Once the visualization cell is completely assembled, we can then do imaging where we can actually take high resolution videos of the surface and actually look at the different battery components while they're being charged and discharged.

    00:02:16 Nobody has been able to take high resolution video images of what is happening to the electrodes and link that with what is happening electrochemically to your battery. >>Dasgupta: We are now able to detect the origins of why dendrites form, where they form and how this depends on properties such as how fast you charge and discharge your battery or other usage patterns. People have know for a very long time that dendrites are a major challenge. This enables us to understand why they form, and what variables affect their formation

    00:02:50 so we can come up with intelligent solutions to fix this problem. (voice over) The force and the energy of that impact are transmitted to the surface of the helmet. That impact is transmitted through the helmet as a pressure wave or a stress wave and it eventually enters the skull.