New Design Produces True Lithium-air Battery

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and at Argonne National Laboratory have designed a new lithium-air battery that works in a natural-air environment and still functioned after a record-breaking 750 charge/discharge cycles. Their findings are reported in the journal Nature.

Our lithium-air battery design represents a revolution in the battery community," said Amin Salehi-Khojin, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and co-corresponding author of the paper. "This first demonstration of a true lithium-air battery is an important step toward what we call 'beyond lithium-ion' batteries, but we have more work to do in order to commercialize it.

Salehi-Khojin and his colleagues coated the lattice structure with a molybdenum disulfate catalyst and used a unique hybrid electrolyte made of ionic liquid and dimethyl sulfoxide, a common component of battery electrolytes, that helped facilitate lithium-oxygen reactions, minimize lithium reactions with other elements in the air and boost efficiency of the battery.

Bosch lithium ion battery