Using Crumpled Graphene Balls to Make Better Batteries

Lithium metal-based batteries have the potential to turn the battery industry upside down. With the theoretically ultra-high capacity of lithium metal used by itself, this new type of battery could power everything from personal devices to cars.

“In current batteries, lithium is usually atomically distributed in another material such as graphite or silicon in the anode,” explains Northwestern Engineering’s Jiaxing Huang. “But using an additional material dilutes the battery’s performance.” Huang and his collaborators have solved this problem by taking a different approach — one that even makes batteries lighter weight and able to hold more lithium.

The solution lies in a scaffold made from crumpled graphene balls, which can stack with ease to form a porous scaffold, due to their paper ball-like shape. They not only prevent dendrite growth but can also survive the stress from the fluctuating volume of lithium.

Read more at Northwestern University

Image Credit: Northwestern University

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