A team of researchers have announced a new carbon-silicon material that they say could more than double the driving range of electric vehicles (EV) — and enable fast charging to more than 80 percent capacity in just five minutes.
According to the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, current-day EVs generally use graphite anode batteries, which tend to provide shorter range compared to their fossil fuel counterparts. Silicon anodes, on the other hand, have ten times the capacity — but are much worse at holding their capacity over time.
The Korean team came up with a way to keep these silicon anodes stable by using “a simple thermal process used for frying food,” according to a statement, which involves the use of water, oil, and starch.
The composite materials developed by the research team demonstrated a capacity four-times greater than that of graphite anode materials (360mAh/g – 1,530mAh/g) and stable capacity retention over 500 cycles.
It was also found that the materials enable batteries to charge to more than 80% capacity in only five minutes.
Carbon spheres prevent the usual volume expansion of silicon, thereby enhancing the stability of silicon materials. Also, the use of highly conductive carbon and the rearrangement of the silicon structure resulted in a high output.
“We were able to develop carbon-silicon composite materials using common, everyday materials and simple mixing and thermal processes with no reactors,” Hun-Gi Jung said in the statement, noting that their new composites perform so well, they’re “highly likely to be commercialized and mass-produced.”
Reference- Phys.org, Futurism, CleanTechnica