Is Battery Degradation a Thing of the Past?

Batteries provide an enormous service to our electronic world. Without batteries there’d be no cell phones, no cars, no remotes, the list goes on and on. But while batteries have changed the way we interface with electronics they come with one fatal flaw—they degrade over time. In an effort to reshape the battery’s lifecycle researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) have pinpointed why batteries decay and believe they’ve found a solution to the problem.

Using state of the art electron microscopy, BNL materials scientist Huolin Xin discovered that as a battery ages and absorbs multiple charge cycles its anode begins to fracture on the atomic level. As these fractures accumulate, crystalline deposits of rock-salts collect on the anode’s surface insulating the battery’s terminals from incoming electrical current.

“We discovered surprising and never-before-seen evolution and degradation patterns in two key battery materials,” said Xin. “Contrary to large-scale observation, the lithium-ion reactions actually erode the materials non-uniformly, seizing upon intrinsic vulnerabilities in atomic structure in the same way that rust creeps unevenly across stainless steel.”

With battery’s mortal enemy identified, Xin and his team are now in the process of creating an atomic deposition method to infuse a new generation of Lithium-ion batteries with a crystal resistant cathode coating.

Although Xin’s long lifecycle batteries are likely a few years away from market, the technology could lead to batteries with higher energy densities that last much longer than their current iterations. This in turn could revolutionize the electronics industry, allowing items as diverse as cellphones and space probes to perform more electrically intensive tasks without worry of dying.

Image and Video Courtesy of Brookhaven National Laboratory