Lithium-ion batteries lose lithium over each charge and discharge, and it's ability to hold a charge. At the A*STAR Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, Yu Wang and team have demonstrated new materials in a battery to help reduce the over loss of energy storage capabilities. Cobalt oxide nanoparticles embedded in carbon fiber is a stong replacement material for anodes in Li-on batts due to its abilitiy to hold ions versus other regularly used tin. The same material can be lithium-cobalt oxide, currently used in cathodes. Researchers heat cobalt carbonate hydroxide nanobelts coated with layers of polymerized glucose in an inert atmosphere at 700 degrees Celcius and then in air at 250 degrees Celsius, a end up with a peopod like structure. The prototype batteries show that over 50 charge-recharge cycles, it can still hold 91%. How much do the old batteries lose in comparison?
Wang, speaking about the achievement in manufacturing, said"it is the first time that such isolated magnetic nanoparticles embedded in hollow fibers have been produced. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the peapod composite exhibits a uniform morphology, with pod lengths of up to several micrometers and pod diameters of as small as 50 nanometers." Wang and team plan to take the manufacturing technique beyond lithium-ion batteries, into gene engineering, capacitors, and magnets.