- lithium air battery
Mark Prigg Released: 11: 38 on July 20, 2012 | update: At 19: 26 on July 20, 2012, gold power can help electric vehicles increase their endurance significantly.
Scottish researchers say the precious metal can help the new air breathing battery store up to ten times more energy than the current one.
This will bring a huge space for the development of electric vehicles, and greatly enhance their popularity.
But to make the battery very expensive.
Researchers at the University of St. Andrew in Scotland admit that electric car batteries made of gold are not practical.
However, they hope that by using gold in key areas of the battery, they can significantly increase the range of cars.
In a paper published in the journal Science, St. Andrew chemist said, describes how the experimental lithium-air battery, featuring organic electrolyte and porous gold electric, maintains a capacity of 95% after 100 charge cycles.
Currently, lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles can only be charged for a set number of times.
However, researchers are developing new "air breathing" batteries that do not experience the same problem.
In terms of energy density, lithium-ion batteries are in many ways the best we currently have, and they will be with us for a long time, including in electric vehicles, says Peter Bruce, professor of chemistry at St. Andrew.
But we already know that if we can double the energy storage of these batteries, it will be the possible limit.
"Lithium-ion batteries are not able to meet our needs as we move forward, so people are interested in finding alternatives such as lithium air.
"In principle, lithium air batteries collect oxygen from the air when the vehicle is traveling.
That means they don't need to be heavy-
The metal oxide increases the weight of the battery, but the storage space is limited.
Oxygen molecules react with lithium ions and electrons on the surface of the porous gold cathode to form hydrogen peroxide.
The lithium peroxide formed during the discharge process generates current, which provides power for the motor of the car.
Reverse reaction occurs when charging-
Oxygen is released back into the atmosphere.
The St Andrews team suggested, not all
Gold electrodes, one option may be to coat carbon with gold and see if the results are comparable.
"We have shown that the electrochemical reactions that need to happen in air cells are indeed effective and seem reversible," Professor Bruce said . ".