Ni-MH battery packs

Research on positive electrodes and electrolyte materials for Ni-MH battery packs has made progress

As the world's demand for renewable energy development grows, the shortcomings of power grid energy storage systems are becoming increasingly prominent. Among mainstream battery systems such as lead-acid, nickel-metal hydride, and lithium-ion, lithium-ion batteries have the best overall performance, but the reserves of lithium are limited and there are safety risks; although lead-acid batteries are low-cost, lead has environmental pollution problems. Therefore, the development of cheap, safe, long-life, and fast-charging battery systems has become a hot topic in the world. In recent years, the emergence of Ni-MH battery packs has provided a new solution to the above problems. It uses "aluminum", one of the most abundant metal elements in the earth's crust, as a battery material. Due to the conversion between an aluminum ion and an aluminum atom, three electrons can be gained or lost, making its theoretical specific capacity second only to lithium, and it has a high development potential. Since the 1980s, Allied Signal, Cornell University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, Indian Institute of Technology and other institutions have successively invested in the development of aluminum ion batteries, using graphite, graphite fluoride, metal oxides, conductive polymers and other materials as positive electrodes, but none of them have achieved the ideal discharge voltage (<1.7V) and sufficient charge and discharge cycles (<100 times). In 2015, the research group led by Academician Dai Hongjie of the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University used foamed graphite materials as positive electrodes and ionic liquids as electrolytes to successfully develop the first aluminum ion battery in nearly 30 years with a discharge voltage of 2V and thousands of charge and discharge cycles. The complete battery reaction mechanism was proposed, and the relevant research results were published in Nature magazine. Recently, the research group led by Academician Dai has proposed a new process for low-cost, high-capacity graphite positive electrodes to address the problems of insufficient capacity of graphite electrodes and high cost of electrolytes. At the same time, it has developed low-cost ionic liquid electrolytes based on urea. The combination of the two has made a big step forward in the industrialization of aluminum ion batteries. The relevant research results were published in the recently published journals Nature Communications and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Nature Communications article reported an aluminum ion battery using natural graphite flakes as the cathode electrode. The battery has excellent performance, with a capacitance of about 110 mAh g-1 and a coulombic efficiency of about 98%. At a 6C rate, the battery capacitance is 60 mAh/g, and the coulombic efficiency is about 99% after more than 6,000 charge and discharge cycles. In addition, the behavior mechanism of chloroaluminate ions embedded in the graphite layer was studied through theoretical calculation simulation. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported an aluminum ion battery using aluminum chloride and urea ionic liquid electrolytes. The coulombic efficiency of the battery is excellent and can reach 99.7%. At a 1.4C rate, the battery capacity is 73 mAh/g, and it can be stably charged and discharged for more than 200 times. Aluminum chloride and urea electrolytes are low-cost. When combined with natural graphite materials as cathodes and aluminum foil as anodes, aluminum ion batteries made of the above materials are low-cost and have excellent electrochemical properties, making aluminum ion batteries an ideal grid power storage system. Recently, aluminum ion batteries have become a new research hotspot in the field of electrochemical energy storage batteries. Technologically advanced countries such as Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Australia all have research teams engaged in related research. In China, research teams including Professor Lin Mengchang of Shandong University of Science and Technology, Professor Jiao Shuqiang of Beijing University of Science and Technology, Professor Gao Chao of Zhejiang University, and Professor Ouyang Chuying of Jiangxi Normal University have also published several research papers on graphite as cathode materials since 2015. These works have strengthened the development advantages of aluminum ion batteries in science and engineering. At present, AB Systems INC, a new startup in Silicon Valley, USA, focuses on the industrialization of Ni-MH battery packs and has obtained exclusive authorization for Stanford University's aluminum-ion battery patent (patent application date: 1st US provisional file on Feb 28, 2014; 2nd US provisional file on Nov 6, 2014; PCT application file on Feb 27, 2015). The company has successfully gathered resources from multiple domestic and foreign industry, academia and research institutions, and is making every effort to promote Ni-MH battery packs to the market.

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