Battery technology is developing much slower than hardware

If you look back at the development of Apple ’s iPhone or Toyota Prius hybrid from the initial model to the existing version, one will find a common trajectory in the technology industry: doubled performance and more product Delicate, created countless jobs, and even subverted the entire industry.

For example, the maximum theoretical download speed of the iPhone in cellular networks has risen from 1 megabyte / second for the 2G iPhone in 2007 to 300 megabytes / second for today ’s 5s models. The pixel density of its display screen has more than doubled, the camera has changed from a cheap accessory to a practical camera tool, and its software capabilities are much more powerful than when the iPhone was born.

Similarly, Toyota's Prius hybrid has transformed from the neighboring freak in 2000 (and accessories that the star shows its environmentally friendly attitude) into the best-selling vehicle in Japan and California. The engine weight of the current model is 20% lighter than the original model (total power increased by 20%), and the mileage traveled after a single charge is longer. Some people would say that without Prius, there would be no Tesla electric car today.

However, in these devices, one component has not changed over the years, and that is the lithium ion battery. Whether it's the iPhone, the Prius, or even the Tesla S model, the lithium battery uses the materials used when Sony introduced the product in 1991. Of course, this does not mean that people have not innovated for this kind of battery. Device manufacturers are doing better and better at charging efficiency, cooling and controlling the current flow into mobile phones, cars, notebooks and USB components, but the cores of these batteries have not changed much. Even the $ 5 billion ultra-large battery plant Tesla plans to build still produces (as you might expect) lithium battery packs.

Further investigation found that people still have different opinions about which battery technology may be able to replace the lithium battery, and even there are few rumors in this regard.

To investigate the reason, Fortune asked a simple question to 5 well-known researchers, a behavioral economist and a battery industry executive dedicated to the development of next-generation batteries: why battery technology developed So much slower than hardware?

Next, you will find that 10% of the answer is related to chemistry, 10% is related to psychology, and 20% is related to the rhetorical question of the above question: For a new battery technology that has not been developed for two decades, once installed Car, who wants to be the first to drive the car?

Today's battery technology: high density, high heat generation, and many problems

Lithium ion battery technology is the main force of mobile power in many aspects.

The atomic weight of lithium is 3, if you remember middle school chemistry, it means that it has three protons, which is very light, and is the element with the highest density per unit volume except hydrogen and helium. Carlo, professor of physics at Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago? Segre said that the physical quantity of lithium is well known to chemists, and we almost grasp the way in which lithium ions flow in the battery.

Segre said, I think in the final analysis, the reason lithium is so good is that it is very light and can easily penetrate the isolation membrane. And the voltage it generates is one of the highest among known materials.

Lithium is not the only material in a lithium battery. It is also mixed with manganese (personal electronics and vehicles), iron phosphate (high-intensity work), and other metals. To generate voltage, this mixture flows through another material: graphite, titanium solution, silicon, and different forms of carbon (as the case may be). For most non-industrial equipment used in relatively safe environments, lithium manganese oxide flows through graphite, because this material is inexpensive, relatively safe, and has a high density.

But this old product also has some problems. This process will generate heat in a high-density space, requiring some cooling measures. (For example, a liquid cooling device equivalent to the length of Tesla's body is responsible for a lot of cooling.) The electrolyte that conducts lithium ions increases the weight of the battery. The capacity of the battery will decrease after a period of time. Charging will allow lithium ions to return, but this process can be faster. High-density lithium batteries filled with electrolytes sometimes burst or explode after the heat generation exceeds a certain level, although this is rare.

We may use air in the future

Chandra Sekal, director of the technology department of IBM Research. Narayan is a member of the Battery500 Project. The goal of the project is to develop batteries that can provide the power needed to travel 500 miles. IBM does not produce batteries by itself, but cooperates with consumer product manufacturers to bring this technology to reality.

After years of hard work, Narayan saw the prospect of lithium-air technology, that is, replacing graphite and other metals with oxygen supplied by the car itself. This type of battery can become lighter, safer, and last longer. But developing new mixtures, making them into new materials, and testing their safety on thousands of cars will take a very long time.

Narayan said: At present, there is no guiding principle showing that we can make progress year after year, and there is no shortcut to take. To get this paradigm, only to create a completely new chemical reaction, and this is not something innovation can achieve.

Currently, lithium-air batteries must overcome blockages, internal corrosion, and stability issues. Even if the air battery can smoothly evolve into a viable product, Narayan believes that battery technology will no longer be universal in the future. For example, it may not be a good technology for grid storage. Especially in industries with size requirements, we may soon see a variety of battery types.

What can we do now: lower prices

Kevin Bai and Zhou Xuan of Kettering University are engaged in the battery industry research in the laboratory, but their talk is more like a car buyer than a nerd in the laboratory. Zhou Xuan said that today's hybrid vehicles have many advantages and disadvantages.

Zhou Xuan said: At present, the price of hybrid power is 500-600 US dollars per kilowatt hour, but the reasonable price should be 200 US dollars. And the price of the cooling system is about the same as the price of the battery. If the car needs a $ 6,000 battery, then a $ 6,000 cooling system is needed. In addition, Kevin White pointed out that the volume of such batteries has eaten up the space that should belong to the trunk or ride. The two scientists also believe that electric vehicles should not place a heavy financial burden on people.

But no one knows which existing materials can construct the safest, lowest heat generating and lightest battery hybrid materials, and the price is cheaper than the existing products.

The zinc-air batteries used in hearing aids today have renewed interest, and it is particularly important that zinc is easily available. The same is true for sodium-air batteries, which are lower in cost and easier to assemble, except that the potential power cannot catch up with lithium-air batteries. People have also tried to replace graphite and solid carbon with silicon, but silicon is not cheap. Or, we can just focus on improving the cost and performance of lithium-iron batteries used in laboratories and motorcycles.

Kevin White said that building larger battery factories, developing better battery management tools, and smarter charging grids are in many ways more realistic than waiting for the success of one or two new compounds.

Kevin White said: We are actually still far away from vehicles using brand new batteries. Only after the new material has been tested for 10 years can the automotive industry use the new material with confidence. He said that people must wait at least until 2020 to see four-wheeled vehicles using zinc-air batteries, and then it will take longer for people to see the maturity of this battery technology.

What can we do in the future: nano-engineered materials

Pasha, a professor at Texas A & M University and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers energy and sustainability nanoengineering team. Mukhoj said that it is not time to give up lithium-ion batteries. We may still use it, but it will be mixed with materials that we have acquired new capabilities in the laboratory.

Nano engineers may conduct in-depth research on the molecular structure of battery materials to accelerate the generation of battery cell voltage and improve its conversion efficiency. The way the electrolyte carries lithium ions may change to prevent traffic jams and shorten charging time. People may design thinner, more powerful battery membranes that are still flexible, so that even if the battery expands due to heat, it will not burst. Or concentrate on developing materials that can absorb more lithium ions than carbon, air, or any known material.

Mukhoj said: The most fundamental question we need to ask is, 'Can we start all over again? '. This is the mesoscale model that must be solved. Can we increase the tolerance of materials to meet our demands for batteries?

At the same time: focus on the long-term

A year ago, Segre of Illinois University of Technology received a US $ 3.4 million prize from the US Department of Energy for the development of fluid batteries for automobiles. The fluid battery stores its active compound in an external storage tank and then flows through the interior of the battery structure. Segre ’s work focuses on developing liquid media with sufficient activity and energy to offset the weight disadvantage of liquids.

Fluid batteries may be used in automobiles and power grids, but they cannot be used in mobile phones or laptops. Like other researchers, Segre knows that this will be a long experiment, unless researchers can accidentally find several different combinations of materials that can be used in batteries. At the same time, for most people, this is a particularly painful thing, because after a few years, the power is gone and the capacity has dropped, but battery-powered electronic products are constantly advancing.