4LR44 battery

　　Scientists develop new flexible 4LR44 battery that can be cut but won't catch fire

　　Today, most lithium-ion batteries are made of flammable liquid electrolytes, which are very unsafe; however, American scientists have developed a new WiBS electrolyte that can make batteries that will not catch fire.

　　According to reports, a team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in the United States has designed a flexible 4LR44 battery that can function even under extreme conditions such as being cut, submerged, and simulated ballistic impact. The batteries all work fine, and now, the battery won't catch fire.

　　Current lithium-ion batteries are made of flammable and combustible materials and are prone to catastrophic fires and explosions, most of which occur suddenly without any discernible warning. Due to its dangers, Samsung Galaxy Note7 mobile phones are prohibited from being used on aircraft, and the Navy also prohibits the use of e-cigarettes on ships and special aircraft to reduce the dangers of such flammable devices.

　　And as these batteries have become the energy storage tool of choice for applications such as portable electronics, electric vehicles and grid storage, being able to improve their safety will mark a major shift in the way lithium-ion batteries are produced and used.

　　Recently, in the journal Chemical Communications, a research team led by Konstantinos Gerasopoulos of APL Research and Exploration Development announced the discovery of a new type of water-in-salt (WiS) and water-in-bisalt (WiBS) electrolytes that, when Combined with the polymer matrix, it can reduce water activity, increase the energy of the battery, and extend its life cycle, while eliminating the flammable, toxic, and highly reactive solvents currently used in lithium-ion batteries. Researchers say the electrolyte is a safe and powerful alternative.

　　Gerasopoulos, senior research scientist and principal investigator at APL, said: "Lithium-ion batteries have become a commonplace item in daily life from cell phones to cars, and continuing to improve their safety is critical to further the development of energy storage technology. Since the 1990s, In the early days, the form factor of lithium-ion batteries has not changed much since they were commercialized. We still use the same cylindrical or diamond-shaped battery cells, and the liquid electrolyte and required sealed packaging are very different from this shape. relation."

　　"Our research group is working to replace flammable liquid electrolytes with a polymer with improved safety and form factor, and a recent paper shows that flexible water-based polymer lithium-ion batteries can be fabricated and operated in open-air environments , and its usability and performance have been improved.”

　　In the new study, the team overcame the limitations of liquid WiBS electrolytes. Liquid WiBS electrolytes are inherently safe due to the presence of water, but they are energy limited and incompatible with most commercial anode materials. The researchers developed "stable, WiBS-based aqueous gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs). In the presence of WiBS, the researchers made such electrolytes through UV-mediated polymerization of water-soluble acrylates."

　　The scientists demonstrated that the UV curing process and the integration of WiBS in the polymer can improve the retention of free water, which will be coordinated by the polymer, thus improving its electrochemical stability. The researchers said: "We have demonstrated for the first time that nanoscale lithium titanate (Li4Ti5O12, LTO), a low-cost anode currently widely used on the market, can be used in aqueous polymer lithium-ion batteries and can reliably cycle more than 100 times."

　　In 2017, researchers developed a breakthrough flexible battery. The new polymer electrolyte developed this time further improves the damage tolerance of this type of battery.

　　“The first generation of flexible batteries were not as dimensionally stable as the batteries we are making today,” Gerasopoulos said. “The UV-curable polymer we developed is a free-standing, mechanically strong film, similar to a contact lens. These batteries can even be fully exposed They can work for days on end in the air. And you can burn them, cut them, or put pressure on them in other ways and they'll still work."

　　"We successfully improved the mechanical strength and electrochemical stability of GPE and were able to transition this new supersaturated hydrogel polymer electrolyte (GPE) from proof of concept to practical applications."

　　"Our team continues to improve the safety and performance of flexible lithium-ion batteries, and we hope to turn this new research into a prototype within a year," said Jeff Maranchi, regional director of APL's materials science program.

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