Graphene Battery Development

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The young Edison posing for the camera

Battery Development
The Lies and the Reality!!

By looking through the content of this blog, you will find extensive writings on battery development going back several years. 

Almost all of the projects that I have written about to date have come to naught. So much hype and so many of the breakthroughs and inventions have proved to be nothing more than mist in the morning air, that I decided to stop covering news of these so-called battery breakthroughs.

On Batteries Thomas Edison in 1883 says it all:

I will let Edison say what I, and many others think:

"The storage battery is, in my opinion, a catchpenny, a sensation, a mechanism for swindling the public by stock companies. The storage battery is one of those peculiar things which appeals to the imagination, and no more perfect thing could be desired by stock swindlers than that very selfsame thing. ... Just as soon as a man gets working on the secondary battery it brings out his latent capacity for lying."

So why am I writing about battery breakthroughs again? Because a brand new super material, almost magical in its qualities, is becoming readily available. This new super material is Graphene.

Go make some in your kitchen:

 Crann Research Centre Dublin Ireland 

(Crann meaning Tree in Irish and pronounced - crown)

Major breakthrough in graphene production techniques in Dublin Ireland Crann research centre.

(My interpretation) Take the leads from some nice soft 4b pencils and crush them into a fine powder. Add some water and "Fairy Liquid" dish washer fluid. Place in a blender and set to high. Then blend for 30 minutes or longer. You will have some graphene in the blender. 

Not that you will be able to identify it or use it, unless you have some really high-tech equipment and a fair bit of scientific knowledge.

The outcome is that graphene will become many times less expensive to produce, and large quantities can quickly become available.

One of the Graphene 

based Developments

Lithium - Graphene - battery breakthrough?

The word is out in the news agencies that there are several new batteries currently in development. One in particular is at a testing stage and appears to hold a promise of being able to hold twice as much as the best current batteries can hold and thus be able to power an electric vehicle for more than 480 Km about 300 miles before recharging. The defining name of this new battery is Lithium Sulphur Graphene.

Current lithium ion batteries achieve 200 Wh/kg. The century plus old lead acid type battery can hold about 40 Wh/kg. Another key factor is how the battery performs as it goes through cycles of charging and discharging, and for an electric car you would want more than 1,000 cycles without serious deterioration. It's also good if the batteries don't catch fire when being charged!

Recent breakthroughs.

One battery that showed some promise was the lithium sulphur battery. This battery started life as one of several modifications of the common lithium ion battery. The development was soon shelved because the chemical process rapidly deteriorated after only 15 to 20 charge cycles.

Now add some Graphene

Very recently a research team at the Lawrence Berkeley Labs California found what was causing the breakdown in the Lithium Sulphur cells, and were able to add a graphene based layer to prevent the deterioration. They also adopted a different electrolyte and modified the cathode of the cells.

This resulted in a re-born battery which has more than double the capacity of a standard Li ion battery. Tests to date have shown that it can achieve in excess of 1,500 charge cycles without deterioration.

Will this battery make it to the shops for Christmas, or join the ranks of the dozens of others in semi-permanent development? Who knows. But with the Fairy Dust of Graphene in the frame - who knows what might emerge.

Another Graphene Energy Development

The Super Capacitor is another very exciting energy storage device. Up till now, it has not made any quantum leaps in its evolution. But with out new super material Graphene becoming available in many new forms and in quantity, this exciting storage device will also take a big dive forward.




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