By Pamela Mansfield, JEOL USA  As the market for renewable energy sources and electric vehicles grows, the need for reliable, high-capacity energy storage is increasing too. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) fit the bill in many ways, but plenty of challenges remain ahead, such as understanding their microstructure. This article describes how scanning electron microscopy (SEM) can…

Dendrites are projections of metal that can build up on the surface of lithium anodes and penetrate into the battery electrolyte, eventually crossing from one electrode to the other and shorting out the battery cell. What gives rise to these metal filaments has been somewhat of a mystery, and there has been little progress on…

A new approach to extracting residual energy from waste batteries could serve as a starting point for waste reduction research   Batteries find use everywhere. But once discharged, they are discarded. For many years, discarded batteries have been salvaged for valuable metals. However, the residual energy in them have seldom been recovered. In a new…

Researchers at MIT say they developed a rechargeable lithium-ion battery in the form of a fiber that could be woven into fabrics. The researchers say the battery, developed in the form of an ultra-long fiber, could enable a variety of wearable electronic devices and may even be used to make 3D-printed batteries in a multitude…

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed paper-thin biodegradable zinc batteries that could one day become an environmentally sustainable option for powering flexible and wearable electronic systems. The NTU Singapore-developed zinc batteries are made up of electrodes (through which the electrical current leaves or enters the battery) screen-printed on to both sides…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending October 22, 2021, closed at 5,391.27 for the 25 companies in the R&D World Index. The Index was down -1.19% (or -65.00 basis points) from the week ending October 15, 2021. The stock of 12 R&D World Index members gained value from 0.1.50% (Johnson & Johnson)…

 Brill Power, an Oxford University spin-out company,  launched “intelligent” battery management systems (BMS) incorporating technology designed to transform the cost and performance of energy storage systems by increasing battery life by up to 60 percent, enhancing storage capacity by up to 129 percent, increasing systems uptime, and driving down the lifetime operating costs for energy […]

The U.S. Dept. of Energy has announced $17.9 million in funding for four research and development projects to scale American manufacturing of flow battery and long-duration storage systems. DOE also launched a new $9 million effort — the Energy Storage for Social Equity Initiative — to assist as many as 15 underserved and frontline communities leverage…

A group of researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have come up with a coin cell that uses lead-free, bismuth-based, all-inorganic halide perovskite as an anode which also incorporates a photovoltaic cell to recharge itself. Writing in the June 2021 journal Nano Letters, the group says they developed a perovskite that…

A group of researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have come up with a coin cell that uses lead-free, bismuth-based, all-inorganic halide perovskite as an anode which also incorporates a photovoltaic cell to recharge itself. Writing in the June 2021 journal Nano Letters, the group says they developed a perovskite that…