Bending-Tolerant Anodes for Lithium-Metal Batteries
- Journal:
- Advanced Materials
- Published:
- DOI:
- 10.1002/adma.201703891
- Affiliations:
- 8
- Authors:
- 9
Research Highlight
Carbon shares the load in bendy batteries
© Monty Rakusen/Cultura/Getty
Bendy
batteries could be made more durable by protecting vulnerable components in a
flexible carbon frame.
Lithium-based
batteries can hold a lot of power, but lithium crystals can grow inside the
cell with detrimental effects. Bending the battery leads to more crystal growth
and increases the likelihood of a short circuit.
A
team including researchers from the Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical
Science and Engineering in Tianjin built an anode by combining lithium with
graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms. The graphene provided a flexible
frame that absorbed the stresses caused by bending and prevented the growth of
lithium crystals. The team tested their anode in a battery and found that it
lasted 1000 hours, whereas a cell made using a purely lithium anode short-circuited
after just 200 hours.
Durable, bendy batteries could be used in wearable electronics and flexible solar cells that can withstand damage.
References
- Advanced Materials 30, 1703891 (2017). doi: 10.1002/adma.201703891