MIT:RESEARCHERS at Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they have made a breakthrough in battery technology that could halve the size and cost of electric car batteries. They would also run on a liquid solution.
Flow batteries have existed for some time, but have used liquids with very low energy density, meaning they take up much more space than fuel cells and require rapid pumping of their fluid, further reducing their efficiency.
The new semi-solid flow batteries overcome this limitation, providing a tenfold improvement in energy density over current liquid flow-batteries. They are also cheaper to make than conventional lithium-ion batteries.
The new battery relies on an innovative architecture called a semi-solid flow cell, in which solid particles are suspended in a carrier liquid and pumped through the system.
In this design, the battery’s active components – the positive and negative electrodes, or cathodes and anodes – are composed of particles suspended in a liquid electrolyte.
These two different suspensions are pumped through systems separated by a filter.
If the idea is developed commercially, motorists will be able to refill electric car batteries in the same way as they fill up on petrol at fuel pumps, the researchers said.