Texas Engineers Develop New Material for Better Lithium-Ion Batteries

The batteries we use every day may soon become cheaper, smaller and lighter. Researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered a family of anode materials that can double the charge capacity of lithium-ion battery anodes. This means that the batteries that we use in everything from cellphones to large-scale energy storage systems could be more efficient in the future.

The new family of anode materials, which the researchers dubbed the Interdigitated Eutectic Alloy (IdEA) anode, saves time and materials by producing an anode using only two simple steps instead of the multiple steps traditionally required to mass-produce lithium-ion battery anodes.

The researchers created a foil material that is one-quarter of the thickness and half of the weight of the graphite and copper anodes used in virtually all lithium-ion batteries today. As a result, a smaller, lighter rechargeable battery could be made with the new anode in the future.

Read more at The University of Texas at Austin

Image Credit: Cockrell School of Engineering

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