Who Won the U.S. Presidential Debate?

Using a polymer to make a strong yet springy thin film, scientists led by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are speeding the arrival of next-generation solid-state batteries. This effort advances the development of electric vehicle power enabled by flexible, durable sheets of solid-state electrolytes.

The sheets may allow scalable production of future solid-state batteries with higher energy density electrodes. By separating negative and positive electrodes, they would prevent dangerous electrical shorts while providing high-conduction paths for ion movement.

These achievements foreshadow greater safety, performance and energy density compared to current batteries that use liquid electrolytes, which are flammable, chemically reactive, thermally unstable and prone to leakage.

"Our achievement could at least double energy storage to 500 watt-hours per kilogram," said ORNL's Guang Yang. "The major motivation to develop solid-state electrolyte membranes that are 30 micrometers or thinner was to pack more energy into lithium-ion batteries so your electric vehicles, laptops and cell phones can run much longer before needing to recharge."

The work, published in ACS Energy Letters, improved on a prior ORNL invention by optimizing the polymer binder for use with sulfide solid-state electrolytes. It is part of ongoing efforts that establish protocols for selecting and processing materials.

• Read More