BATTERIES: jump starting technology

The world’s first prototype battery charged up in 1800 when Italian physicist Alessandro Volta built his voltaic pile. Since then, all kinds of batteries have emerged—alkaline, lead-acid, nickel-cadmium, nickel-metal hydride, and lithium-ion, among others—but battery technology has not yet reached its full potential.

“The ideal battery should be very cheap, have a long cycle life, and be environmentally friendly,” said Branko Popov, director of Carolina’s Center for Electrochemical Engineering. “Today’s batteries do not satisfy any of those requirements.”

The center focuses its research on batteries that can be recharged, particularly Ni-MH and Li-ion batteries. Popov and other Carolina scientists are developing new materials for cathodes and anodes for those batteries, and they’re studying ways to make them last longer and operate more efficiently.

Among other accomplishments, the center has developed high-performance anode materials for Ni-MH batteries, resulting in a higher capacity, a longer cycle life, and a low self-discharge. The center’s research has sparked interest from the U.S. Department of Energy, which has provided more than $1 million for research into the cause of failure of Ni-MH and Li-ion batteries.

Will hydrogen fuel cells eventually render batteries obsolete? Current fuel-cell technology still has room for improvement in such areas as cost, hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, cathode efficiency, stability, and durability, Popov said. When those issues are resolved, fuel cells, for most applications, will be better suited than batteries. “Currently, this is not the case,” he said. “Today, batteries are the storage system of choice.”

The automobile industry, for example, is switching from hybrid vehicles, which rely on batteries and conventional fuel for propulsion, to completely electric cars. “By 2010, we’ll be driving electric cars powered by lithium-ion batteries,” Popov said.

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