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Developing A Better, Cheaper Electric Car Battery

Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are addressing many pressing issues in energy and the automotive industry. One major project is producing a high-performance electric car battery that is reliable, safe, and less expensive. Materials scientist Jun Liu is leading a team to develop a battery pack with a specific energy of 500 watt-hours per kilogram. Today, a typical electric car battery has 170-200 watt hours per kilogram, less than half of what the team would like. The researchers plan to replace the graphite used on the negative electrode in a typical electric vehicle with lithium metal, which can store more energy for the same amount of weight.