Australian researchers say they’ve opened the path to a new generation of batteries that could allow an electric vehicle to drive from Melbourne to Sydney on a single charge.

And the crucial ingredient was a spoonful of sugar.
Key points:

Lithium-sulfur batteries can store at least twice as much energy by weight than the current generation of lithium-ion batteries They’re also several times cheaper to make and require fewer exotic materials The discovery could lead to cheaper EVs with significantly longer range

Electric vehicles (EVs), mobile phones and other consumer electronics mostly use lithium-ion batteries that were commercialised in the 1990s.

They’re made using toxic and exotic materials such as cobalt, nickel and manganese that are in increasingly short supply around the world.

Fortunately, there is an alternative; lithium-sulfur batteries use cheaper, more abundant materials and are able to store two to five times more energy per kilogram than lithium-ion ones.

But there’s a hitch — they degrade rapidly through the process of being recharged.

Now a team from Monash University say they’ve found a way of making lithium-sulfur batteries that are robust enough to be recharged 1,000 times.

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>Now a team from Monash University say they’ve found a way of making lithium-sulfur batteries that are robust enough to be recharged 1,000 times.

That’s not all that many in the scheme of things, surely.

Bubblecar said:

>Now a team from Monash University say they’ve found a way of making lithium-sulfur batteries that are robust enough to be recharged 1,000 times.

That’s not all that many in the scheme of things, surely.

yeah we’re not fully up on the lingo but wintate has

Recent EVs are using new variations on lithium-ion chemistry that sacrifice specific energy and specific power to provide fire resistance, environmental friendliness, rapid charging (as quickly as a few minutes), and longer lifespans. These variants (phosphates, titanates, spinels, etc.) have been shown to have a much longer lifetime, with A123 types using lithium iron phosphate lasting at least more than 10 years and more than 7000 charge/discharge cycles, and LG Chem expecting their lithium-manganese spinel batteries to last up to 40 years.

and we’ve driven HEV before but don’t know how the small charge-discharge fluctuations fit within the “charge/discharge cycles” (since we certainly do speed up and slow down hundreds of times in a decent length trip) guess we’ll have to leave that to the enerds

Bubblecar said:

>Now a team from Monash University say they’ve found a way of making lithium-sulfur batteries that are robust enough to be recharged 1,000 times.

That’s not all that many in the scheme of things, surely.

Well, at a recharge interval of 900 km, that’s 900,000 km of use. Significantly longer than an ICE car lasts.

Michael V said:

Bubblecar said:

>Now a team from Monash University say they’ve found a way of making lithium-sulfur batteries that are robust enough to be recharged 1,000 times.

That’s not all that many in the scheme of things, surely.

Well, at a recharge interval of 900 km, that’s 900,000 km of use. Significantly longer than an ICE car lasts.

ah full electric that makes more sense

we haven’t driven any vehicle, ICE HEV or otherwise, a million kilometres

SCIENCE said:

Bubblecar said:

>Now a team from Monash University say they’ve found a way of making lithium-sulfur batteries that are robust enough to be recharged 1,000 times.

That’s not all that many in the scheme of things, surely.

yeah we’re not fully up on the lingo but wintate has

Recent EVs are using new variations on lithium-ion chemistry that sacrifice specific energy and specific power to provide fire resistance, environmental friendliness, rapid charging (as quickly as a few minutes), and longer lifespans. These variants (phosphates, titanates, spinels, etc.) have been shown to have a much longer lifetime, with A123 types using lithium iron phosphate lasting at least more than 10 years and more than 7000 charge/discharge cycles, and LG Chem expecting their lithium-manganese spinel batteries to last up to 40 years.

and we’ve driven HEV before but don’t know how the small charge-discharge fluctuations fit within the “charge/discharge cycles” (since we certainly do speed up and slow down hundreds of times in a decent length trip) guess we’ll have to leave that to the enerds

There you are then.

Michael V said:

Bubblecar said:

>Now a team from Monash University say they’ve found a way of making lithium-sulfur batteries that are robust enough to be recharged 1,000 times.

That’s not all that many in the scheme of things, surely.

Well, at a recharge interval of 900 km, that’s 900,000 km of use. Significantly longer than an ICE car lasts.

There you are then, again.

Bubblecar said:

>Now a team from Monash University say they’ve found a way of making lithium-sulfur batteries that are robust enough to be recharged 1,000 times.

That’s not all that many in the scheme of things, surely.

It’s not actually that bad – that refers to full discharges and you’ll find that if you only discharge them half way, they’ll be good for 2000 goes, and 4000 if discharged only a quarter. (Lithium Ion batteries were only rated for 2000 charge cycles when they first appeared)

Now, because they have twice the energy density and are several times cheaper, you can have a car with a cheaper battery that’s twice the capacity – you discharge it less for daily use, and have twice the range for when you need it.

> But there’s a hitch — they degrade rapidly through the process of being recharged.

Fair enough – recharging has always been a problem with all types of batteries. It’s not so loing a time since no lithium battery was rechargeable.

> Now a team from Monash University say they’ve found a way of making lithium-sulfur batteries that are robust enough to be recharged 1,000 times.

Good on them.