1.5V rechargeable battery

The United States has developed a lithium iron oxide rechargeable battery

According to foreign media reports, researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory and the Wolverton group at Northwestern University have jointly developed a lithium-iron oxide rechargeable battery.

Core tip: According to foreign media reports, researchers at Argonne National Laboratory and Wolverton's group at Northwestern University have jointly developed a lithium-iron oxide rechargeable battery. Compared with the common lithium cobalt oxide battery, its lithium ions move more, which is due to its higher electric capacity, which prolongs the battery life of electric vehicles. Through numerical calculations, Wolverton and Yao discovered a new formula, and the chemical reaction of the formula is reversible. First, the research team replaced cobalt with iron, which is the cheapest metal in the periodic table. Later, through calculations, they found the correct balance ratio of lithium, iron and oxygen ions, so that oxygen ions and iron ions can promote reversible reactions at the same time, without causing oxygen to escape.

According to foreign media reports, researchers at Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne National Laboratory) and Northwestern University's Wolverton (Wolverton) group collaborated to develop a lithium-iron oxide rechargeable battery (lithium-ion iron oxide battery, rechargeablelithium -iron-oxide battery). Compared with the common lithium cobalt oxide battery (lithium-cobalt-oxide rechargeable battery, lithium-cobalt-oxide counterpart), its lithium ions move more, which is due to its larger electric capacity, thereby extending the battery life of electric vehicles.

The research was supported by the Energy Frontier Research Center (Energy Frontier Research Center) project of the U.S. Department of Energy, and its research results were published in "Nature Energy". Postdoctoral researcher Chun Zhan is the first author of the research paper. Wolverton and Yao were responsible for the computational development, while Argonne was responsible for the experimental aspects of the research.

During the charging and discharging process of the battery, lithium ions will move back and forth between the anode and the cathode. When the battery is charged, the lithium ions go back to the anode and are stored there. The battery's cathode is made of a composite that includes lithium ions, transition metals and oxygen.

Usually, cobalt is selected as the transition metal, which can efficiently store and release electrical energy when lithium ions move back and forth from the anode to the cathode. The capacity of the cathode is limited by the number of electrons in the transition metal that will participate in the chemical reactions within the battery.

Lithium cobalt oxide batteries have been on the market for 20 years, however, often after long-term studies, researchers have discovered another rechargeable battery that is relatively cheap and has a higher capacity. The research team at the Wolverton Laboratory improved its performance on the basis of ordinary lithium cobalt oxide batteries, mainly using the following two new strategies: replacing cobalt with iron and forcing oxygen to participate in chemical reactions.

If oxygen can be stored and electricity can be released, the power of the battery will naturally increase, and more lithium ions can be stored and utilized. While other research groups have done similar studies, few have been successful.

Through numerical calculations, Wolverton and Yao discovered a new formula, and the chemical reaction of the formula is reversible. First, the research team replaced cobalt with iron, which is the cheapest metal in the periodic table. Later, through calculations, they found the correct balance ratio of lithium, iron and oxygen ions, so that oxygen ions and iron ions can promote reversible reactions at the same time, without causing oxygen to escape.

What's more, the battery starts with four lithium ions instead of one, which will boost the battery's capacity. The iron and oxygen will drive the battery to react, realizing the reciprocating movement of four lithium ions between the anode and cathode of the battery.