“This breakthrough development translates into a remarkable improvement in cell-core energy density, reaching 2,000Wh/L in batteries and approximately 1,700Wh/L in full-size EV batteries – more than double the performance of current state-of-the-art technologies,”
Aside from completely avoiding the cobalt issue, Sienza notes that its manufacturing process does not rely on the solvent-based coating systems deployed for producing conventional lithium-ion batteries. Sienza cites one commonly used solvent in particular, N-methyl-pyrrolidone (NMP).
MagicShel@programming.dev 2 months ago
That sounds really impressive. But describing it as “the best thing ever” really has my skepticism at full mast.
5C5C5C@programming.dev 2 months ago
Probabilistically, sure, but it’s not impossible that there has been some piece of knowledge or understanding that’s been missing, and that massive breakthroughs are possible once the process is figured out.
I think a fair modern example is LED light bulbs. They are better in every conceivable way than incandescent or fluorescent lightbulbs: they last longer, use less energy, shine brighter, use less toxic materials, and are easy to mass produce. But there were several decades where much of the industry believed that LEDs would never be very useful as a light source because we could only produce red and green, and it was generally believed that a blue LED would be impossible to produce.
Then one guy decided it would be his life mission to invent the blue LED, and the sonuvabitch did it. Now LEDs are the only sensible thing to use to produce light.
It’s always possible for this kind of breakthrough to happen, especially in material science where the complexity of how molecules interplay is nearly incomprehensible.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
A breaktrough would be needed to electrify ship and flight. Would be great if it is that.
Moah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
LEDs are worse at color accuracy (CRI) which is hardly relevant unless you need it, but it’s just to show that even they aren’t strictly better than what they replace
QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Possibly difficult to mass produce. That’s usually what kills all the new great battery tech.
pop@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
I hope this encourages some manufacturers to endorse it and bring it to market. That could make them save and profit a lot compared to other battery tech manufacturers.
Telorand@reddthat.com 2 months ago
Even if this gets relegated to niche applications, all improvements are good improvements.
At the very least, it demonstrates that certain targets are possible, and that’s sometimes necessary to secure funding to find those cheaper/scalable options.